Fruits and vegetables: why should they be the basis of our diet?

Fruits and vegetables should always be the basis of our diet. The beneficial components they provide are multiple and necessary for the proper functioning of our organism: they are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, water, and low in calories. This attributes to them multiple properties such as antioxidants, improving intestinal transit and intestinal microbiota, and have shown to have a direct impact on the prevention of certain diseases such as overweight and obesity, certain types of cancer such as colon cancer, and cardiovascular problems among others.

The most important question is how often we eat them throughout the day and in what quantity. Because do we really eat enough of them?

Nutritional pyramids tell us how often we should eat foods, and the new pyramids place fruits and vegetables at the base, implying that we should consume them every day, not just one, but three pieces of fruit a day and two servings of vegetables, one of them raw if possible to ensure the correct intake of certain vitamins, that is, between the two groups, 5 a day.

And the second part, in what quantity? Here comes the healthy plate, which tells us what proportion of our plate should be vegetables, and we find that both at lunch and dinner we should consume vegetables, and these should represent approximately half of our plate.

So, reviewing: 5 pieces of fruit a day and half of the lunch and dinner plate composed of vegetables. They seem like two very simple rules, but how many people here manage to comply?

All fruits, vegetables, and greens are a perfect source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber mainly. A combination of them provides us with different vitamins and minerals, for example, yellow, orange, or red ones provide us with beta-carotenes which are precursors of vitamin A, green leafy ones are rich in folic acid, citrus fruits, strawberries, and kiwis stand out for their vitamin C content and also contain natural phytochemicals such as broccoli from the cruciferous family, which contains glucosinolates that stand out for their anticancer properties among many others.

And they will always be better if they are in season. At each time of the year, different varieties of fruits and vegetables adapted to the climate, temperature, and respecting their cultivation time are grown and harvested. This makes them rich in all the nutrients (vitamins, minerals, and fiber) that we need according to each time of the year since they are harvested at their optimal ripening moment. For example, watermelon, which belongs to the cucurbit family, is rich in water ideal for summer months. Plus, they have a better taste and retain all their characteristic aromas, which encourages their consumption. Furthermore, in this way, we are betting on the sustainability of the food system, on the varieties specific to our area (which provide us with the same nutrients as many of the foods talked about today), and promoting local consumption.

Always better seasonal, local, and Km0 fruits and vegetables, for our health and for everyone’s.

Rosa Llul Vila, Pharmacist and Nutritionist