What Grade Do You Get? Guest Blogger Serena Shares Her Tips for Eating Healthier

Ok, so how many of you know that you should include more servings of fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables in your daily diet? Yes, just as I suspected all of you knew that one. Great, you received an A grade for this test question. Now onto your second test question. How many of you are eating the recommended daily amount of 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day? Aha, just as I thought, a minority of you. But if you are meeting the recommendation, congratulations and keep up the great work; however for a lot of you it looks like you are receiving a failing grade for this one, for now. As your dutiful nutrition professor I feel compelled to guide you toward an A grade.

I often ask my peers, mentors and students what is their personal disconnect between knowing and acting. The knowing being that fruits and vegetables are good for you and the acting being obtaining, preparing, and consuming them. What I have found is three reoccurring themes.

• Fresh fruits and vegetables “go bad” too quickly.

• Fresh fruits and vegetables are too labor intensive to prepare.

• I just don’t like the way they taste.

In order to address each of these barriers I have created a “study guide” so you can be well on your way to that desirable A grade.

Problem: Fresh fruits and vegetables “go bad” too quickly.

Solution: Simply buy less and buy fruits and vegetables that have a longer shelf-life. Start with an attainable goal of 1 serving of fresh fruit and 1 serving of fresh vegetables a day. In this way when you go to the grocery store you need only purchase 3 apples and a bunch of grapes to last a week. These specific fruits will last the week for a single person. (Hint: start with the grapes and keep them in your refrigerator). For your vegetables, bagged lettuce will last up to 7 days (or more) if stored properly and winter squash, onions, celery, cauliflower, and potatoes much longer.

Problem: Fresh fruits and vegetables are too labor intensive to prepare.

Solution: Purchase fruits and vegetables that are simple to prepare. Yams only need a scrub, time and a hot oven. Bagged lettuce only needs a quick rinse, tangy vinaigrette and handful of nuts. Apples and pears, merely need to be eaten. Additionally, over time, both farmers and grocers have adapted to our frenetic lifestyles, developing either new products like broccolini (a hybrid of broccoli that requires no chopping and only a quick steam or sauté) or value-added products such as prewashed and chopped green beans.

Problem: I just don’t like the way they taste.

Solution: All this requires is a sense of adventure. If you don’t enjoy Napa cabbage give the slightly sweeter (and very delicious) Savoy cabbage a try. Don’t relish the thought of steamed zucchini tossed with butter? Try it roasted with tomato sauce. By altering either the variety of vegetable or the method of preparation you should find a wide range of fruits and vegetables that you will not only enjoy, but dare I say crave.

I hope you found my study guide helpful. As your nutrition professor I would like to encourage all of you to study hard (i.e. eat more fruits and veggies), retake the exam following all that hard studying, and give yourself that A grade you deserve! You can do it. Just remember to start small and try different fruits and vegetables and/or find new ways to cook the classics. Good luck and happy studying!

Serena

-Serena Marie is a fourth year Nutritional Biology Doctoral Candidate at the University of California, Davis. Her primary research focuses on the genetics of body weight and the investigation of gene x diet interactions. Serena is adjunct faculty at Napa Valley College teaching, Nutrition Today, an introductory nutrition class for non-science majors and is a guest lecturer for Physiological Genomics and Clinical Nutrition at the University of California, Davis.

Happy New Year! This year eat a pomegranate, it's good luck!

The Produce Picker Podcast wants to wish everyone a Happy and safe New Years! Whatever you're doing/did tonight enjoy it and I think a good resolution would be to eat better in the New Year. Of course I'm talking about trying to stick to the good ol' government program 5 a day (no they did not pay me to say that, unfortunately).

But if you did choose to eat more fruits and vegetables in '08 then potentially it would be beneficial to stay tuned to the Produce Picker Podcast so that you could choose and prepare the best tasting fruits and veggies possible:)

Now I couldn't let you ring in the New Year without a produce tip so here it is.
Pomegranates are fast becoming a favorite winter holiday treat. Americans typically use them as table decor around this time of year however many are quickly learning what most other cultures have known for centuries, they're good and good for you! This is due in large part to the POM company and their introduction of POM juice (again no pay, I just think it tastes great. Wow, I'm quickly becoming a "sell out" and I'm not even getting paid. I don't think that's how it's supposed to work lol). Since their introduction of pomegranate juice a few years ago they have marketed the incredible antioxidant benefits that pomegranates and their juice provide and thus Americans have begun to realize the beauty of this fruit.

interesting fact interruption: The ancient Egyptians used to place pomegranates in the graves of their dead for safe passage to the "other world."

The Pomegranate, however, does have a downside. It's messy! Real messy! If you get the juice on your clothes while drinking it or cutting one open it will stain. There is an alternative that is now being sold in most produce departments around this time of year, pomegranate seeds, just the seeds. This wouldn't be the way I'd go because it's just not as fresh but if you don't know how to cut into one or don't want to bother with the hassle and of course the mess then this is the way to go.

Speaking of not knowing how to cut into a pomegranate, this is a tip off to the next episode of the Produce Picker Podcast because this will be the topic I'll cover. Stayed tuned to learn the best way to cut into a pomegranate and get the seeds out. You won't want to miss it and you'll certainly want to try it, the seeds are great and add a great aesthetic touch to any salad or desert.

UPDATE: Here's the Episode! Enjoy:


Once again have a Happy New Year and stayed tuned for more great tips from the Produce Picker Podcast and Blogcast (this site's new name:))

Ray a.k.a. The Produce Picker

P.S. Check out the comment section on the previous post (12/30/07 located below the blog post in small print labeled comments) to see an interesting new product for your fruits and vegetables and meet Maya the first member of the Produce Picker Podcast community to contribute to the conversation! Join us!