Fruit over juice
Take the juice box out of the lunch bag. Instead of juice, toss in a piece of fruit.
Headlines were made last week when the medical journal The Lancet published the results of a review spanning 10 years of dietary habits of people across the globe.
The review considered 187 countries and looked at multiple criteria, including how often people said they consumed common foods, drinks and nutrients, including healthy choices like vegetables and fish or unhealthier alternatives like processed meat and sugary drinks.
Researchers noted that diets based on healthy choices have improved over time, while diets based on unhealthy items have worsened.
Digging a little deeper into the comparisons, I noted that on a global scale, Canadians consume some of the largest amounts of juice and at the same time have a low intake of fruit.
So this week I’m sharing a few things we’ve successfully implemented in our home to eat more fruit, and drink less juice.
Plan your day to have fruit, not juice, at breakfast and all snacks. I challenge anyone out there to think of a breakfast meal which can’t be paired with some sort of fruit.
Mix things up and get creative. Fruit isn’t just for smooth- ies. You can add fruit to summertime salads and winter soups, too. Personal favourites include strawberries and mandarins to leafy green salads, and a carrot apple ginger or curried butternut squash and pear soup.
Don’t forget dried fruit. Not the candied or sweetened stuff, but the plain, naturally sweet and delicious, dried fruit. Reduce added sugar in recipes by adding these sweets to muffins, cookies, loaves, pancakes and hot cereal.
Try raisins, dates, prunes, figs, apricots, cranberries, cherries and diced apple or mango slices.
Buy frozen fruit. We have a better variety with frozen, especially throughout the winter here in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Frozen fruit is already washed, peeled and precut. It’s affordable, too. Given that frozen fruit is harvested and quickly packaged thereafter, it may be higher in nutrition than its fresh counterpart which has to remain shelf-stable to travel long distances. Frozen fruit has become a daily diet staple for everyone in our house, including my one-year-old son.
Keep fruit in bird’s-eye view. If it’s out of sight, it might just be out of mind.
We keep fresh fruit on the kitchen counter, but the table is a good place, too.
Having larger fruits pre-cut, washed and ready to eat is helpful, as well. Keep cut pineapples and melons stored in a see- through container at the front of the fridge for easy snacking.
Take the juice box out of the lunch bag.
Just one juice box is usually the equivalent of two servings of juice.
Instead of juice, toss in a piece of fruit. The whole fresh pieces on the counter, or the fruit also washed, diced or sliced in the fridge can be just as quick to fill the bag on a busy workday morning.
Don’t buy large containers of juice. In fact, we rarely buy juice anymore, because if it’s in the fridge we’ll drink it. Cartons of juice can be expensive.
What’s the alternative? Aside from water, indulge your taste buds and try herbal teas.
As with juice, there are many choices out there, and they can provide flavour and sweetness with the bonus of no sugar or calories. My favourites include chamomile and peppermint green tea.