Nutritional facts about fruits and veggies
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EmailWas your New Year’s resolution to increase more fruit and vegetables into your diet? If so, it might be interesting to learn what the nutritional facts are about these healthy foods.
According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, half of our plate at any given meal should be filled with fruits and vegetables. This means, when we are shopping, half of our shopping cart should also be filled with fruits and vegetables. Research shows that eating more fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
Reading a Nutrition Facts Panel is a good way of understand what type of food is going into your body. By law, packaged food is required to have a nutritional label with the following things listed:
- Common name of product
- Name and address of the product’s manufacturer
- Net contents (how much product is inside)
- Total weight (measure or count)
- Ingredient list
- Nutritional facts panel
According to Michigan State University Extension, many people turn to a nutrition label to see how many calories or fat is in cereal or a bag of chips, but fresh fruit and vegetables don’t have labels. So where do we get this information? There are a few options.
Some grocery stores may have a chart located near their fruit and vegetable sections of the store. Others may have labels close to the signs where the fruits and vegetables are identified.
Another option is to visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website. They have created posters in many different sizes that give the nutritional facts about fruits, vegetables and seafood.
Some helpful and interesting facts include:
- Two medium kiwi fruit give you more Vitamin C then one medium orange.
- Lemon and lime have the least amount of calories.
- Only two vegetables contain fat: broccoli (0.5g) and corn (2.5g).
Eating more fruits and vegetables can lead to a healthy diet; by reading the nutritional facts, you will see all the good vitamins and minerals you are adding to your body.
To learn more about nutrition or eating healthy, visit your local MSU Extension office.
