Healthy Eating–-You Can Do It!

• Lack of desire. Ah-HA! The real crux of the matter. “I don’t like fruits and vegetables.” Sure you do. You just don’t recognize what you’re eating as “a serving of fruits and vegetables.” How about that salad you eat for lunch? Two cups of greens plus one cup of cut-up tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots, or the other “leaf toppers” of your choice equals four (yes, FOUR) servings of vegetables–that’s 80 percent of your daily requirement right there! Add an apple at bedtime, or a banana on your morning cereal, and you’re golden.

Tired of salad? Roast some vegetables. This takes a TINY bit of effort, it’s true, but oh-so worth it. Coarsely chunk onions, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, summer squash, cauliflower… just about anything fairly substantial (e.g., not lettuce, not cucumbers; use your common sense.) Toss with a liberal amount of healthy olive oil and some salt. Roast in a 350°F oven till fairly soft and golden brown (varies by vegetable; about 30 to 90 minutes). You’ll be astounded at the sweet, compelling flavor of roasted vegetables, I promise. I wouldn’t eat steamed cauliflower on a bet, but roasted? Food of the gods. And the way veggies shrink as they roast, you could easily consume a full 5 servings in one delicious sitting.

How about fruit? There’s a HUGE universe of fresh fruit out there, waiting to be discovered. For top-notch flavor, try to buy fresh produce from your own local farms. I live for our apple season each year, when farmers flood the market with all kinds of snapping-crisp, sweet varietal apples. Ditto strawberries. But thanks to modern transportation, the growing season for just about anything is now year-round. So when local produce is too expensive, go with those Chilean peaches or California blueberries.

And fruit doesn’t have to be fresh. Are you a fool for canned pineapple? Go for it! Treat yourself to frozen raspberries: they’re relatively inexpensive (about $2.50 a package, which includes multiple servings), and they thaw almost immediately in your bowl of hot oatmeal. Dried apricots are a sweet snack, and just 1/4 cup is a full serving. Ditto raisins or prunes (er, “dried plums”). And don’t forget fruit juice; just make sure it’s 100 percent juice, preferably unsweetened. Orange, pineapple, grapefruit… six ounces (3/4 cup) of juice in the morning, and another glass mid-afternoon, and you’ve put two servings of fruit under your belt. Literally.

So tell me again why you can’t eat those five daily servings of fruits and vegetables? And “forgetting” is not a valid excuse, chemo-brain or no! Buy them. Keep them front and center, in the fridge or on the counter. Make ’em a part of your daily routine. Then go take a walk, and you’ve vastly improved your health. Plus, if you’re an early-stage survivor, lessened your risk of death from breast cancer.