Best in Season

Serve up some delicious, healthy produce now, while it's fresh

- BY Beth Weinhouse

WHAT IF THERE was a kind of food that tasted delicious, came in thousands of varieties, could be eaten raw or cooked in an endless number of ways, and helped prevent most of the major diseases killing us? Well, this kind of food does exist—it’s fruits and vegetables!

Given these facts, the real question is why are only 1 in 10 of us eating the recommended daily amounts of these natural wonders?

Plenty of people have grown up never eating healthy foods, says Marion Nestle, PhD, author and Paulette Goddard professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. Or They may not know how much to aim for. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines currently recommend at least two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables each day, and give examples of what constitutes a serving size. A serving of fruit, for instance, could be a medium-size apple, banana, orange or pear. Or it could be ½ cup of chopped, cooked or canned fruit. A serving of vegetables could be one cup of raw leafy greens, or it could be ½ cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw. Last year, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) released 17 Dietary Guidelines for Indians, which recommends that not more than 45 per cent of calories should come from cereals and millets and up to 15 per cent of calories should come from pulses, beans and meat. The rest should be derived from nuts, vegetables, fruits and milk.