YMCA Healthy Living Magazine, powered by n4 food and health Spring 2017 | Page 8

TRY FOR
Last issue we shared some tips to help encourage
your kids to eat more veggies, but the importance
of this practice applies to adults too. Nutrition
expert Catherine Saxelby explains.
ating plenty of vegetables makes good nutritional
sense. They’re packed with vitamins, minerals, fibre
and numerous antioxidants – and all for very few
kilojoules (calories).
E
Nutrition guidelines encourage us all to eat at least five
serves of vegetables a day. It’s a recommendation that is so
important for your health that this year’s National Nutrition
Week theme is Try For 5. So here are a few tips to help you
and your family achieve this. 
3 Grate vegetables into bolognaise sauce, rissoles,
hamburger patties and stews to ‘outsmart’ the more
reluctant vegetable eaters in the family.
4 Use leftover vegetables for bubble and squeak – big and
little kids love it, and it also makes it a great alternative
to mash.
‘Try for 5’ or ‘five-a-day’ is pretty self-explanatory: your goal is
simply, to eat five serves of vegetables or salad every single day! 5 Team your Sunday morning eggs with steamed spinach,
slow-roasted tomatoes or grilled mushrooms. Or make
an omelette with vegetable filling such as corn kernels,
thinly-sliced zucchini or capsicum. 
Now it’s all well and good to say ‘five serves a day’ but what
exactly do nutritionists mean by a ‘serve’? One serve of
vegetables is: 6 For dinner, serve up large portions of non-starchy
vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, asparagus,
mushrooms and Brussels sprouts. 
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• 7 Enjoy a colourful stir-fry – the more colourful veggies you
use, the more antioxidants you’ll get. 
What is Try For 5?
½ cup diced cooked vegetable (around 75g)
1 cup salad leaves or raw sliced vegetables
1 medium potato
½ medium kumera or sweet potato.
Easy ideas to help you
Try For 5
1 Pack raw vegetable
sticks (carrot, celery,
sugar-snap peas,
grape/cherry tomatoes)
as part of your lunch.
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2 Warm and fill hungry tummies with a mug of vegetable
soup or a hot corn on the cob. These make ideal
after-school or post-work snacks.
YMCA HEALTHY LIVING MAGAZINE SPRING 2017
8 Add extra salad to your sandwiches. Go for variety like
lettuce, tomato, grated carrot, sliced cucumber, sprouts,
rocket or beetroot. 
9 At cocktail hour substitute the traditional corn chips/
crackers and dip, for veggie sticks with hommus or salsa.