Your mother was right. You should eat more fruit and vegetables.
Despite best intentions, they often end up playing a supporting role in our diets—added when convenient, skipped when life gets hectic. The opportunity lies in rethinking where they fit, not as an afterthought, but as an easy extension of the meals you already rely on.
So, even if you're not a fruit and vegetable lover, here are some ways you can incorporate more of these foods into your meals.
Set a goal of increasing fruit and vegetables in your diet. A good place to start is the USDA’s MyPlate guidelines, which recommend that half of our daily intake should be fruit and vegetables. The USDA even publishes online the MyPlate Plan, which shows food group targets based on age, height, and weight.
Once you decide on goals, establish a clear action plan and start working towards it. The more specific the goal, the better! For example, you might want to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat daily by 50%. Or maybe you would like to reduce your reliance on processed carbs at lunchtime by 50%. Whatever the goals, consider using the SMART goal approach to increase the chances of achieving success.
Try adding fruit and vegetables to your preferred dishes. For instance, you can mix fruit into your yogurt or cereal, add blueberries or strawberries to your pancakes, pack additional vegetables into your sandwich, top your pizza with vegetables, or add greens to your favorite pasta dish or casserole. This has the potential to decrease calories per serving because the added fruit and veggies can displace higher-calorie ingredients. For example, adding extra vegetables to your omelet could mean using only two eggs instead of three.
Smoothies are an easy option to boost your fruit and vegetable intake. For weight loss, try the vegetable smoothie diet, in which you replace one meal each day with a vegetable-based smoothie. It's an appealing choice for those who want to get the benefit of increased fruit and vegetables but want the most straightforward possible recipe: throw it all in the blender.
Like smoothies, juicing can be an excellent method to get more fruit and veggies into your diet, especially if you aren't a big fan of eating them whole. In one way, juicing is superior to eating whole fruit and vegetables because it enables the body to absorb nutrients more efficiently, thus giving your digestive system a break. According to some experts, another benefit of juicing is that it can help lessen the risk of cancer, enhance the immune system, rid the body of toxins, improve digestion, and aid in weight loss.
There are those among us who never acquired a taste for fruit and vegetables. Perhaps our parents were overly pushy about forcing us to eat these foods with the justification of, “It’s good for you!” The unfortunate result was a lifelong distaste for anything coming out of the grocery store produce department.
Well, you’re all grown up now, and if improving your health or losing weight is a priority, then it might be time to challenge old prejudices. One idea would be to visit your local library's cooking section or search online for recipes that use fruit and vegetables. Try out a few, and you might be surprised by how tasty some of these dishes can be. Give it a shot, and one might even become your new favorite!
If store-bought fruit and vegetables aren’t appealing, try growing your own! It doesn't take much expertise or space to cultivate something extraordinary in your backyard or even in a pot on a balcony. Not only does homegrown produce often taste better, but the pride you feel in growing it yourself increases the motivation to add it to your food choices. You also replace a drive to the grocery store with a few steps to your fruit or vegetable plant for something fresh off the vine.
If starting your own garden isn’t an option, try visiting a local farmers' market where you’ll find a big variety of locally grown fresh fruit and vegetables. In many instances, the produce is higher quality and less expensive than in the grocery store. A farmer’s market offers much more than just fruit and vegetables. In many cases, especially at the big ones, you’ll also find prepared foods, spices, cereals, dried beans, fish, and meat.
Sometimes people who dislike fresh fruit and vegetables enjoy the dehydrated versions. For example, you can add dry fruit to yogurt, smoothies, oatmeal, and other healthy breakfast foods to make them more nutritious and taste better. They also make a great snack to carry and eat on the go! Dried fruits are also full of nutrients and can be used to treat various health issues. You can even dry fruit and vegetables at home. Check online for equipment and how-to videos if you’re interested in the do-it-yourself approach.
Canned fruit or vegetables are often equally as nutrient-dense as fresh and are often more cost-effective. Just remember to read the labels because sometimes canned foods may contain a lot of added sugar or sodium. Look for "reduced sodium," "low sodium," or "no salt added" on the label when purchasing canned vegetables. For canned fruit, avoid offerings with extra sugar or syrup to avoid consuming unnecessary calories. As with fresh versions, beware of adding too much extra sauces, gravy, butter, or toppings to frozen or canned fruit and vegetables. You might be adding more calories than you intended.
Eating more fruits and vegetables is one of those habits that pays off in quiet, reliable ways. Meals feel fuller, energy holds steadier, and food choices start supporting your goals instead of working against them. Some changes will stick. Others won’t. That’s fine. What matters is finding combinations and routines you actually enjoy and want to repeat. Over time, fruits and vegetables stop feeling like an obligation and start showing up naturally on your plate, where they belong.