Summer's 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 Americans? 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 1 cup of raw leafy greens, or it could be ½ cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw.

A BAG OF POPULAR SNACK CHIPS COSTS $9.32 A POUND. NO APPLE COSTS THAT.

If this sounds like a lot, it's because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers fruits and vegetables to be among the "foundational foods" (others include fat-free and low-fat dairy, and whole grains) that should be the basis of our diets, saying that these foods "are associated with improved health, such as reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancers, and being overweight or obese."