Do you know how to use the five a day rule for healthy eating?
Zaak OConan

The five a day rule is one of the most important rules to healthy eating. The five a day rule refers to the government’s recommendation that everyone eat at least five servings a day of fruits and vegetables. At first blush, five a day seems like a reasonable goal, but most people fail to eat sufficient amounts of these important foods.

It is important to remember the many advantages of fruits and vegetables when applying the five a day rule to your own diet. For one thing, fruits and vegetables taste great, contain fewer calories than many other foods and are full of many important vitamins and minerals. In addition, fruits and vegetables are colorful and beautiful, making them great garnishes and salad toppings.

In addition, fruits and vegetables are easy to prepare, even for the busiest individual. In most cases, fresh fruits require no preparation at all, other than a quick wash and perhaps peeling.

The five a day recommendation equates to roughly two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables every day, based on the average 2,000 calorie diet. This is not a difficult goal to reach, but it is important to keep the five a day goal in mind when grocery shopping, cooking and planning meals.

One great way to get started toward a five a day lifestyle is with a delicious serving of 100% fruit juice every morning. Apple juice, grapefruit juice and orange juice are all excellent choices for both taste and nutrition.

Fruits and vegetables can also be used as garnishes for other foods. Who doesn’t enjoy a sliced strawberry or banana with their morning cereal? And fruits and vegetables make great snacks as well. Whether you keep a couple of apples at your desk or a selection of carrot and celery sticks in the fridge, having fruits and vegetables readily at hand is a big part of the battle.

Of course variety is extremely important when making any change to your diet, and many dietary changes fail due to boredom. Constantly trying new varieties of fruits and vegetables is a great way to keep yourself interested in your new healthier way of eating. If you’ve never had kiwi fruit or asparagus, for instance, why not give it a try?

Combining attractive colors, shapes and sizes of fruits is another way to provide attractive and interesting meals for yourself and your family. Combining white grapes, red peppers and pineapple chunks can provide a delicious and attractive salad.

It is important to provide constant variety when implementing the five a day plan, particularly if you are cooking for a family. Try making some interesting new dishes, such as veggie pizza, made with fresh vegetables and whole wheat pizza crust, a fresh vegetable wrap, vegetable stir fry or pasta with fresh vegetables.

For those who think they are too busy to incorporate five servings of fruits and vegetables a day into their diet, there is help available. The many ready to eat, prepackaged salad kits on the market make it easier than ever to create a healthy salad on the go. Just keep a bottle of your favorite low fat or nonfat salad dressing on hand and you can enjoy a healthy salad anywhere and anytime.

Even fast food restaurants have made it easier than every to eat healthy, with every major chain now offering at least a few healthy menu items. In addition, most grocery chains offer fresh salad bars where you can create your own healthy lunch even if you’re pressed for time.

When creating your five a day healthy lifestyle, remember that fruits and vegetables make great snacks. An apple, orange or banana provides both great taste and excellent nutrition. In addition, the natural sugars contained in fruits do not provide the sugar high/sugar crash scenario all parents are familiar with.

Topping meals and salads with additional fruits and vegetables is a great way to enhance your new five a day lifestyle. Strips of green and red peppers, broccoli florets, sliced carrots and cucumbers are all great additions to pasta and potato salads. And of course carrots, spinach, apple slices, orange slices, nectarines, pineapples and raisins are all great additions to any salad.

In addition, adding fresh fruits to foods you already eat is a great way to make such foods part of your new lifestyle. Adding berries, bananas or oranges to cereal and yogurt is a great way to make sure you meet your five a day goal every day.
About the Author

Zaak O’Conan discovers and presents useful information on how to enhance and/or repair your life, body and relationships. You’ll find his other articles on eating better and other ways how to improve your life at http://your-health-center.com

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You may also know the Mayo Clinic 3 Day Diet as the Grapefruit Diet. This diet is all about eating certain foods at particular times each day. Each meal will include half a grapefruit which is where it gets the name ‘grapefruit diet’. Although the diet is not actually endorsed by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the name of the Mayo Clinic 3 Day Diet still lives on.

Let’s take a look at the three main meals of the Mayo Clinic 3 day diet.

Breakfast – For breakfast each morning you will have a black tea or coffee, half a grapefruit and bread with some protein. For the bread and protein you could have toast with egg, toast with cheese or toast with peanut butter.

Lunch – lunch will also include protein and bread. Some examples of lunch could be toast with a boiled egg, toast with 1/2 cup of tuna or cottage cheese on crackers. You can also have a black tea or coffee with lunch.

Dinner – dinner is the most substantial meal of the day with this diet. Day 1 dinner includes 3 oz lean turkey, 1 cup of carrots, 1 cup of green beans, 1 apple and 1 cup of vanilla ice-cream. Day 2 dinner consists of 2 beef franks, 1 cup of cabbage or broccoli, 1/2 cup of carrots, 1/2 a banana and 1/2 cup of vanilla ice-cream. Day 3 dinner includes 1 cup of tuna, 1 cup of cauliflower, 1 cup of carrots, 1 cup of melon and 1/2 cup of ice-cream.

Every meal should include 1/2 a grapefruit or 4 oz. of grapefruit juice.

The key to success with this diet plan is that you must drink at least 32 ounces of water a day.

There are a lot of people that swear by this diet and have said you can lose 6 points in the three days of the diet. Here are some of the reasons why this diet is so effective.

1. The number of calories consumed is extremely restricted. Even though the diet includes ice-cream every day you are still only eating around 1200 calories a day.

2. This diet helps to flush out your system and help you to lose a lot of water weight.

3. This is not a permanent weight loss. This is a fast weight loss and if you go right back to your usual eating habits as soon as you finish the 3 days then you will put the weight back on.

So what is the point of dieting for 3 days if you are just going to put it back on? This diet is great if you have an event coming up that you want to lose a few pounds for. If you have a wedding, school reunion or want to fit into your skinny jeans to go to a concert, then this diet can help you to do that.

Although grapefruit is a vital part of the Mayo Clinic 3 day diet, there is no proof that it has any magical weight loss qualities. Not everyone likes grapefruit and some people will substitute it for orange during the diet.

Grapefruit does however have 6 grams of fiber in half a grapefruit so when you are eating 3 servings of it a day then you are getting 18 out of the 25 grams of recommended daily fiber. Diets that are high in fiber will help to flush out the system and assist with weight loss. Grapefruit juice though does not have any fiber.

The Mayo Clinic 3 day diet can also be useful to kick-start a diet and give you a fast weight loss to begin your weight loss journey and when you finish the 3 days on this diet you can then move onto a healthy eating plan to lose more weight in a slower time period. The kick-start at the beginning of the diet can help motivate you to continue to eat healthy and lose more weight.

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3 Day Chemical Breakdown Diet Right Foods Equal Shed Pounds

The idea behind a 3 day chemical breakdown diet is to use the proper combination of food to lose weight as quickly as possible. Which sounds like a lovely idea, but know stuff are a lot of questions as to whether the combination of foods has anything to do with it.

There are scientists on both sides of the fence about the 3 day chemical breakdown diet. Some believe that the proper combination of foods creates a mix of enzymes that optimizes fat loss. Other believe that being food is adverse down to its most basic cartel before entering the bloodstream, the exact combination of foods used in the 3 day chemical breakdown diet is irrelevant.

Generally speaking, claims of because immeasurably because six to ten pounds lost on the 3 day chemical breakdown diet are not uncommon. Theres no question that the diet will absolutely cause you to lose weight quickly, its just the reasons why that are in question.

There are three reasons that the 3 day chemical breakdown diet will help you lose weight, even if the idea that a typical mix of chemicals in food will help you lose weight. One, its very high in fiber compared to most diets, which will help clean out your gut. Two, even with the ice cream and peanut butter, the 3 day chemical breakdown diet is low in carbohydrates, which will cause you to lose water weight. And third, its low in calories, which will help you lose fat.

The usual menu for the 3 day chemical breakdown diet looks like this:

Day One

Breakfast

of a whole grapefruit or 4 ounces of grapefruit juice, unsweetened
1 slice of toast with a teaspoon of peanut butter

Lunch

1 / 2 cup of water packed tuna
1 slice of toast

Dinner

A locus pound of any meat
1 cup of string beans
1 cup of carrots, cooked or raw
1 small apple
1 cup of vanilla cool cream

Day Two

Breakfast

1 hard – boiled egg
1 part of toast with a teaspoon of peanut butter
or
1 / 2 Banana with a teaspoon of peanut butter

Lunch

1 cup of cottage cheese
5 plain crackers

Time

2 hot dogs
1 cup of cauliflower
1 / 2 cup of carrots, cooked or raw
or
1 / 2 banana
1 cup of vanilla ice cream

Day Three

Breakfast

1 hard – boiled egg
1 slice of toast
I piece of cheddar cheese

Lunch

1 slice of cheddar cheese
5 plain crackers
1 small apple

Dinner

1 cup of water packed tuna
1 cup of beets
1 cup green beans
1 cup cantaloupe
1 cup of vanilla ice cream

As you can see, the diet is high in vegetables and low in starches, which makes it a fairly healthy diet. The only real problem with the 3 day chemical breakdown diet is that its very low in calories, usually less 1, 000 per day, which makes it unsafe to persist in on long term. But for quick weight loss over the short term, the 3 day chemical breakdown diet is one of the best available.

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3 Day Chemical Breakdown Diet Right Foods Equal Shed Pounds

The idea behind a 3 day chemical breakdown diet is to use the proper combination of food to lose weight as quickly as possible. Which sounds like a lovely idea, but there are a lot of questions as to whether the combination of foods has anything to do with it.

There are scientists on both sides of the fence about the 3 day chemical breakdown diet. Some believe that the proper combination of foods creates a mix of enzymes that optimizes fat loss. Other believe that since food is broken down to its most basic combination before entering the bloodstream, the exact combination of foods used in the 3 day chemical breakdown diet is irrelevant.

Generally speaking, claims of as much as six to ten pounds lost on the 3 day chemical breakdown diet are not uncommon. Theres no question that the diet will absolutely cause you to lose weight quickly, its just the reasons why that are in question.

There are three reasons that the 3 day chemical breakdown diet will help you lose weight, even if the idea that a specific mix of chemicals in food will help you lose weight. One, its very high in fiber compared to most diets, which will help clean out your gut. Two, even with the ice cream and peanut butter, the 3 day chemical breakdown diet is low in carbohydrates, which will cause you to lose water weight. And third, its low in calories, which will help you lose fat.

The usual menu for the 3 day chemical breakdown diet looks like this:

Day One

Breakfast

of a whole grapefruit or 4 ounces of grapefruit juice, unsweetened
1 slice of toast with a teaspoon of peanut butter

Lunch

1/2 cup of water packed tuna
1 slice of toast

Dinner

A quarter pound of any meat
1 cup of string beans
1 cup of carrots, cooked or raw
1 small apple
1 cup of vanilla ice cream

Day Two

Breakfast

1 hard-boiled egg
1 slice of toast with a teaspoon of peanut butter
or
1/2 Banana with a teaspoon of peanut butter

Lunch

1 cup of cottage cheese
5 plain crackers

Dinner

2 hot dogs
1 cup of cauliflower
1/2 cup of carrots, cooked or raw
or
1/2 banana
1 cup of vanilla ice cream

Day Three

Breakfast

1 hard-boiled egg
1 slice of toast
I piece of cheddar cheese

Lunch

1 slice of cheddar cheese
5 plain crackers
1 small apple

Dinner

1 cup of water packed tuna
1 cup of beets
1 cup green beans
1 cup cantaloupe
1 cup of vanilla ice cream

As you can see, the diet is high in vegetables and low in starches, which makes it a fairly healthy diet. The only real problem with the 3 day chemical breakdown diet is that its very low in calories, usually less 1,000 per day, which makes it unsafe to stay on long term. But for quick weight loss over the short term, the 3 day chemical breakdown diet is one of the best available.

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