If there is one thing that balance diet stresses greatly upon it is the importance of daily fruit intake. Thankfully in Pakistan, throughout the four seasons we are blessed with abundant varieties of fruits therefor making fruits a part of our daily dietary intake is not an impossible task, a difficult task maybe but surely not an impossible one.
If, like many of the people I know you are finding it difficult to maintain a steady intake of fruits then you should really try and implementing some of the tips that I have found to be very handy, mentioned below.
The half plate rule!
A balanced diet consists of equal amounts of all the important vitamins and nutrients, where we do stock up our plates with carbohydrates (Bread, potatoes) and proteins (chicken and meat) we rarely ever think if we have enough fruits or vegetables to go along with these nutrients.
The half plate rule is not only quite easy to implement but in the long run it will eventually show a number of benefits. Cutting down on carbohydrates and filling up on fruits and vegetables instead can be immense help to you if you are thinking of shedding a few pounds and getting into shape. A very easy example is when you make yourself an omelette in the morning, how about you reduce the amount of cheese that you add and substitute the space with spinach, tomatoes and onions. This would be extremely filling and non fattening.
Add more Fruit!
It’s kind of a cheat, suppose you are making a fruit salad or a bean salad or any kind of salad that requires fruit, you can just put a bit more fruit in these salads than the usual amount and make sure that they taste just as great. If you can’t add in fruit to your regular diet like you should, then you should at least try to add in more fruit when you make a dish containing fruits. It’s not a perfect fit to the problem but its a fit nevertheless.
If you love having a bowl of cereal, just add in sum bananas or strawberries or any other fruit that you think will go well with the cereal and voila you would have successfully added fruits to your dietary intake.
Have Fruit in your kitchen.
When you go grocery shopping, never forget to shop for your fruits also. Adding fruits to your diet intake can become all the more easier if you just have them nearby, ready to be consumed. I admit the craving for most fruits cannot be compared with that of a chocolates, therefore while you may go out of your way to get yourself a chocolate, I really don’t think you will put yourself through nearly as much trouble to get your hands on some fruits. Thus, it would be best if you have fruits in the kitchen to begin with.
Treat them as snacks.
You can improve your fruit intake greatly if you treat fruit as a snack. Instead of snacking on chips or biscuits how about you eat strawberries or caramelized bananas. Bananas go extremely well with chocolate also; they make excellent desserts.
Make fruit fun.
Believe it or not there are some extremely fun ways of consuming fruits;like eating fruit Popsicle or turning them into smoothies or juices. In the hot summer months, I suggest you should try out as many fruit juices and smoothies as possible. There are just so many ways to experiment with summer fruits and their nectar, it would be a loss to let all of that go to waste.
Make a pitcher of fresh fruit juice in the morning, let it sit in the fridge and drink from it the entire day. Every time you go for water try coercing yourself to drink a glass or two of juice in between the water, it will add lots of taste to your palate.
