Stop Wasting Money on Fruits and Vegetables
Purchasing fruits and vegetables for your family can be expensive and wasteful if you don't use everything you purchase before it goes bad. Even if it is kept refrigerated, vegetables and fruits have a limited shelf life. Here are some tips to avoid buying fruits and vegetables in larger quantities than you need to insure that you stop wasting money on fruits and vegetables.
Calculate Your Needs
When preparing meals that involve vegetables, fruit or both, it is smart to calculate how much of each every individual member of the family needs. These needs vary depending on your age, gender and your activity level. Children need more than adults do and older
people can also benefit from eating more of both.
Adult Women
For adult women between the ages of 19 and 30 who are minimally active, two cups of fruit every day is the appropriate amount and 2/12 cups of vegetables every day is as well. Women between the ages of 31 and 50 should be consuming 1 ½ cups of fruit per day and 2 ½ cups of vegetables per day. Women who are 51 or more should be consuming 1 ½ cups of fruit per day. They should also be consuming two cups of vegetables per day in order to avoid using too much. This can be done by serving yourself the fruit cups with breakfast and lunch and serving yourself with the vegetable cups for lunch and dinner.
Adult Men
Minimally active adult men between 19 and 50 should be consuming two cups of fruit each day and three cups of vegetables each day. Men over the age of 50 should eat 2 cups of fruit every day and 2 ½ cups of vegetables every day. This can be done by eating one cup with breakfast and dinner or one cup with breakfast and one as dessert.
Exceptions to Serving Sizes
There are some exceptions to serving yourself and your family certain fruits and vegetables. For example, one serving of leafy greens is considered one cup rather than half a cup. If you choose to eat dry fruit you need to know that one serving equals ¼ of a cup. A half cup of any frozen or fresh fruit juice can help fulfill your fruit requirement for the day.
Large pieces of fruits such as apples, bananas and grapefruit equal a one cup serving. Large pieces of vegetables such as a bell pepper, one ear of corn or a medium sweet potato also equals a serving size of one cup.
Since most people eat three meals a day, the easiest way to include your daily dose of fruits and vegetables is to have 1 ½ cups with breakfast, 1 ½ cups with lunch and 1 ½ cups with dinner. You will also need to have another ½ cup of fruit and vegetables as a snack. Those who choose to eat six small meals per day can limit themselves to a half cup of fruits and vegetables per meal.
In general, many of the fruits and vegetables go bad quickly. The best way to save money is to plan properly for each meal.
