10 Ways To Sneak Some Extra Fruits and Vegetables In Your Family's Diet

We all know by now that we should be eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. But knowing and doing are two different things, aren’t they? Sometimes it is just not easy to get them all in there. We are constantly tempted to fill up on convenience and junk food. If your family is anything like mine, they’d much rather fill up on a bag of chips or a bowl of rice or pasta instead of trying an apple or a plate of steamed broccoli. So we’ll have to get creative. Here are a few ideas to “sneak” some extra vegetables and fruits in your family’s diet.

1. Start the day with a breakfast smoothie. All you have to do is throw some fruits, low-fat yogurt and ice in a blender. You may also want to add a scoop of protein powder in there for good measure. Just blend for a few seconds and you have the perfect breakfast ready to go. I like to sip mine in a thermal cup on the way to work. To make it even more appealing for your kids, use some frozen yogurt or a scoop of ice cream in the smoothie. They won’t believe that you are letting them have ice cream for breakfast.

2. Dried fruit makes an excellent snack any time of the day. Add some small cartons of raisins to your child’s lunch box, pack some yogurt-covered raisins in your husband’s briefcase and keep some trail mix sitting around for snacking. You can also add dried fruit to oatmeal and cereal in the morning. My family loves banana chips in their breakfast cereal.

3. Add some fruits and vegetables to your family’s sandwiches. You can add some banana, sliced apples or strawberry slices to a peanut butter sandwich. Top a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and anything else they will eat. You can even make a sub shop style vegetable sandwich by combining several different vegetables with some mayonnaise and cheese on bread.

4. Have a salad bar at dinner. Set out a variety of chopped vegetables, some cheese and croutons as well as several choices of salad dressing along with the lettuce and let everybody create their own perfect salad.

5. Let them drink their fruits and vegetables. Keep an assortment of fruit and vegetable juices in the fridge and encourage everyone to drink them as a snack. Get creative. You could start “family cocktail hour” by pouring everybody a glass of his or her favorite juice over ice. Add some straws, cocktail umbrellas and sit together to talk about how everybody’s day went.

6. Try this for dessert. Put a small scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt in a bowl and top it with lots of fresh or frozen fruit.

7. Offer fruits and vegetables as snacks. You can cut apples into slices and top them with peanut butter or cheese. Cube cheese and serve with grapes. Cut up some fresh veggies and serve them with ranch dip. And of course there’s ants on a log. Spread some cream cheese or peanut butter on the inside of a stick of celery and sprinkle raisins on it (wow, fruit and vegetable in one snack).

8. Try some new fruits and vegetables. Pick something exotic to get your family’s curiosity. With a little luck their curiosity will outweigh their initial apprehension to trying something new. You could try artichokes, plantains, papaya, mango, star fruit, or anything else you can find in the produce department of your local store.

9. Make a pot of vegetable soup or a stew that’s heavy on veggies and easy on the meat. Both of these make some great comfort food when the weather gets cold.

10. Start “My Veggie Day”. Each family member gets to pick a vegetable one day of the week. They qualify to pick a vegetable as long as they tried each vegetable the week before, otherwise they loose a turn and Mom gets to pick.

Incorporate a few of these ideas and you will have everyone in your family eating more fruits and vegetables in no time.

Here is another tip:

Now that everyone in the family has gotten a taste for it, make sure you always have plenty of fresh fruits and veggies available and ready to snack on.

Susanne Myers together with Christine Steendahl, owns and publishes the Healthy Menu Mailer. Each week, we provide you with 7 dinner recipes. Sign up for a free sample menu of Healthy Recipes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susanne_Myers

Will Cutting Carbs Really Help Lose Weight? by Michael Desire

Initially Yes. But gradually it will have serious repercussions. Let us understand why? When we are consuming lesser carbohydrates for a prolonged period of time, our body gets used to it and starts attacking the stored fat to release energy, thus resulting in weight loss for initial period. But once we stop taking Carbs, fat formation and accumulation stops and our body starts attacking the muscle tissue to release energy in the absence of fat. Thus even though we exercise hard, we are unable to tone up the muscles and start losing an element which we should not.

Cutting Carbs will help one lose weight for some time in the beginning, but the most effective way is to use the low carb diet for a week or two and then manage the intake according to the required body mass index. Carbs are an important element required for a healthy body, so cutting it totally will be harmful for the body. Ways must be sought to strike a balance between the low carb and high carb diets.

Cutting Carbs alone will never help in reducing weight. Is starvation a right mode to reduce weight? What we would end up being is a smaller, weaker fat person. The reason is simple. Our body requires energy and if we would not provide it sufficient fat to convert it into energy, it will start consuming our leaner tissues and make us only unhappy. Thus the best way to lose weight is to have a balanced Carb diet and be involved in lot of activities. Amount of physical activity undertaken is thus a true barometer of reducing weight.

Another important concept related to cutting carbs is to first understand the perfect blend of protein and carbs in our diet. A meal which is full of Carbs but lack proteins would make a person feel hungry sooner as the glucose level will instantly rise and then subside eventually. This would result in making a person consume something soon. But if we take proteins, the glucose level will be stabilized and we would feel fuller and energized for a longer period of time. Thus Cutting carbs would surely help us maintain the glucose level only if we proportionately substitute it with proteins.

Whenever a person thinks or vows to become lean, cutting carbs is one thought which flashes immediately. As we all believe that to lose weight fast, it’s the most simple and obvious ingredient of our meal to be avoided. But what we miss is that it’s also one of the most important and contributing factor for proper brain and memory functions. One may avoid bread or rice but then should definitely switch to banana or potatoes which are supposed to be fattening. The essence here is that you may avoid high carb diet but consume enough carb to sustain a healthy living.

One thing is for sure that instead of ruling out carbohydrates entirely from our plate, we should start following a low carb diet regime. It would focus on energy stimulation and in fact would also assist in controlling the required levels. As Carbs are the most important source of body energy we should be very careful in reducing the intake and always substitute it by following a low Carb diet rather than a No Carb diet.