Easy ways to get your five a day

Are you one of the thousands of women who don't eat your five servings of fruit and vegetables each day? Don’t worry — here are some easy ways to meet this goal without hours of preparation time

Keep a well-stocked kitchen

It sounds obvious, but having the right foods on hand makes you more likely to eat them. Choose from fresh fruit and vegetables, tinned fruit in its own juice, no-salt-added tinned vegetables, dried fruit, pure fruit and vegetable juice (frozen or tinned,) and frozen fruit and vegetables.

Add to your cooking

Add sliced apples to roast pork, grated carrots and courgettes to spaghetti sauce or frozen mixed vegetables to your favourite pasta recipe. Top cake with strawberries, and add tinned fruit to jelly. Fruit and vegetables can only add to the taste of your foods, and they’re good for you.

Choose meals that are packed with veggies

Craving soup for dinner? Choose a chunky vegetable stew. Pasta on the menu tonight? Remember that tomato-based spaghetti sauce counts as a vegetable. Having frozen pizza for a weekend lunch? Buy one with added mushrooms, green peppers and onions, then add your own broccoli when you get home.

Savour them as snacks

Keep carrots in a handy spot in the fridge. Place a bowl of seasonal fresh fruit on the table. Toss small bags of dried fruit in your handbag. Fruit and veggies are the perfect snack because they’re portable as well as delicious.

Make a fruitful dessert

Fruit salad makes a tasty, low-calorie and low-fat dessert. And if you don’t like eating fruit by itself, you can top it off with some low-fat yoghurt.

Drink up

Choose 100 per cent fruit and vegetable juices. A glass of fruit juice counts as one serving of fruit — an easy and delicious way to add healthy produce to your diet.