
Hello, hello!
For the next 30 days I will be supporting the 5-a-day campaign and sharing on my Instagram @juliana.nocchi examples of portion sizes and ideas of how you can add more fruits and vegetables to your meals.
The goals:
Eat at least 5 portions of Vegetables and Fruits every day
Aim to eat 30 different plant-based foods each week
Benefits:
🍋A recently published article confirmed that reaching the minimum of 5 servings per day (≈ 400g) of nutritious fruits and vegetables, except starchy vegetables, was associated with lower mortality, and mortality attributable to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease. They analysed data from 66,719 women and 42,016 men for almost 30 years to come to this conclusion 👏 1️⃣
🍋To improve and maintain long-term health 🙌🏼
Eating 30 different plant-based foods will give you more varied gut bacteria = healthier microbiome. This supports digestion and gut health 💩, reduces inflammations in the body (infections, injuries, and toxins), supports natural healing, detoxification, and can get your immune system ready to fight various diseases 🦠
❌Because most of the carbs in potatoes, yams, cassava, plantain, and fruit juices are provided in the form of sugar, they should not count towards your 5-a-Day and should be avoided by people trying to lose weight and/or balance blood sugar levels.
To help you get into this life changing habit I have prepared a Free Printable 5-a-day challenge that you can download from the Support Zone.
This will make it easier to track your weekly achievements, and get inspired with the vegetables and fruits list.
After downloading and printing it, write down your start date, and every day add the names of the fruits and vegetables you have consumed. Remember we are aiming for at least 5 a day, but if you have extra it would be great!
You can use the food lists to get inspired and also to cross the ones you have already consumed, so you can look for new ones the next day.
These are examples of portion sizes:



A few other tips:
🍋Choose fruits and vegetables in season, fresh, locally sourced, first, then frozen or canned without salt/sugar/syrup.
🍋Always wash your fruits and vegetables with filtered water. If they are not organic, soak them in clean water plus a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice/vinegar or a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, for 20 minutes, to reduce pesticide residues remaining on their surfaces. Wash, drain, and rinse before eating.
🍋Before cooking beans and legumes, soak them in clean water plus a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice/vinegar or a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda (for every cup of grains/beans), for 18 hours, to reduce the amount of phytic acid. Wash it off halfway through and refill the container with water + lemon/vinegar/bicarbonate of soda. If you use a tightly closed mason jar, they will generate heat and keep warm, helping the process. Wash, drain, rinse and cook well.
Good luck and let’s get the 5-a-day started!
🍋 Love, Juli 🌷
Source:
1️⃣Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Mortality