The Food Medic - Ask Dr Hazel E1: CLEVER IDEAS TO GET FRUIT AND VEG INTO YOUR DIET

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $5. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, English muffin sandwiches, value iced coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra. Hey team, and welcome to Ask Dr. Hazel, our new mini episodes that will be dropping throughout Season 7. I'm your host, Dr. Hazel, and I'll be answering all your burning questions. First of all, thank you to everyone who is sending questions

Starting point is 00:00:30 already. And if you would like to submit a question to the podcast for your chance to feature on here, it can be on any topic related to health, fitness, nutrition, mindset, women's health, anything that we talk about, basically. please send your voice recorder questions to ellie at thefoodmedic.co.uk. So let's jump in to this week's listener question. Hi Hazel, I am wondering if you've got any clever ideas to get more veg and fruit into my diet when I am really busy at work and my automatic lunch when I'm working from home would just be eggs on toast or toast with cheese and soup. I rarely have time to prep anything in advance and I'm just wondering if you've got any clever tips of how to get my five a day. Thank you. Amazing, thank you so much

Starting point is 00:01:18 for your question and I definitely have some clever ideas to help you get more fruit and veg into your diet. I actually think a lot of people struggle with this especially when working long shifts or juggling a hectic schedule. I know I do. So just so we're on the same page here in the UK we use the term five a day which refers to the recommendation to eat at least five portions of fruit and veg a day and this includes fresh, canned, frozen fruit and veg and also dried fruit so there's loads of options to choose from a portion of fruit juice also counts but only counts as one of your five a day and the same goes for beans and pulses so back to the question how can we fit

Starting point is 00:01:57 more fruit and veg into our diet I'm going to use the examples that you gave me so say you're having eggs on toast that's easy you could add in some grilled tomatoes mushrooms avocado even beans to the side or you could swap it for an omelette and add in whatever veg you have in the fridge so things like peppers tomatoes even wilted greens work wonderfully in omelettes you also mentioned that you have soup which is a great way to get veggies in obviously it depends on what kind of soup you're making or what soup you've bought from the shop so going for vegetable based soup such as a butternut squash or even a lentil soup there are tons of veggie soup recipes on our website that are free and available to anyone. So if you're looking for some inspo, head over to thefoodmedic.co.uk and we've got loads of ideas up there.

Starting point is 00:02:50 And then thinking about some other options or some other tips and tricks, just like soups, smoothies are a great way to sneak in more fruit and veg. I like chucking in frozen berries, bananas, spinach into my smoothie. Sometimes I add in a scoop of protein powder to just bulk it out or a scoop of oats. Adding a side of fruit and veg to your lunchbox or snacking on fruit and veg between meals. This can be as simple as having just like an apple or a pear, whatever is in season or maybe having some carrot sticks and hummus. Breakfast is also a great opportunity to add in some fruit. I like grating apple into my porridge for example, carrot works well also and maybe a spoonful of raisins or other dried fruit or you could just keep it really simple and add in some frozen berries

Starting point is 00:03:40 and that goes for you know overnight oats granola yogurt bowls I think breakfast is a really versatile meal to get in more fruit anyway and then for dinners you could also try replacing some or even all of the meat in your burgers chili or bolognese with lentils beans or chickpeas or making something like a stir fry where you can just chuck in loads of veg and also you can bulk cook that and then maybe have some for your lunch throughout the week so there's loads of options and hopefully I've given you enough tips to get you started remember that five a day is the goal but anything extra is amazing in addition to getting enough fruit and veg I also

Starting point is 00:04:22 want you to think about getting a good variety of fruit and veg too. So it's true when people say, eat the rainbow. So thank you for your question. And if anyone listening would like to ask a question, remember to drop us a voice recorder question to ellie at thefoodmedic.co.uk for your chance to feature on the podcast.

Starting point is 00:04:41 That's all from me. And I'll speak to you again next week.

The Food Medic - Ask Dr Hazel E1: CLEVER IDEAS TO GET FRUIT AND VEG INTO YOUR DIET

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