Did you know that over 90% of Americans don't eat the daily recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables? The good news is that the recommendations have become simpler to follow — measured in cups instead of "servings" — and the even better news is that the people at CHOW have compiled a handy visual guide to exactly what a cup of the most common fruits and vegetables looks like.
In general, a person who eats about 2,000 calories a day should eat at least two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables every day. (For more specific guidelines based on age and physical activity, check out the CDC's online calculator.)
Instead of cramming every serving of fruits or vegetables you eat into a measuring cup to figure out whether or not you're hitting your target, take a look at CHOW's guide, which transforms the idea of one cup into easier-to-visualize descriptions, like one large orange (a little bigger than a baseball) and four spears of asparagus.
• Check it out: How Many Fruits and Vegetables Should I Eat: A Visual Guide
Do you generally eat enough fruits and vegetables? If not, do you find a guide like this helpful?
Related: Quick, Easy Ways to Get More Vegetables Into My Diet?
(Image: CHOW)
5 Things Paris Taught Me About Travel
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Bacsac Bacsquare 04...
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Emi & Nathan's Natural History
in general isn't the problem over estimating serving sizes of junk food? It seems a pile of one serving of chips or french fries would do more to help us eat healthy.
that would be a pile showing one serving of junk food
It is no surprise to me that 90% of Americans dont get their 5 daily servings of fruit and vegetables.
I 'dieted' leading up to my wedding... but my dieat was exclusively to make sure I got my 5 servings. You know what? Its kinda hard! It was eyeopening to realize how badly i had been doing up until then. I found it easier to do this if I got 2 servings at breakfast (like a glass of Oj and a Banana with my toast) and then have 1 serving with each other meal and as a snack, or have a big old salad as one of my meals. It was amazing how much less I ate junk food by doing this... I just didnt have room in my stomach/meals plans for them.
I honestly think the best think about getting my 5 servings was how full I felt all day as my stomach worked to break down all that fiber. It was a great way to eat (even if I have slacked off a bit recently).
oh no! i'm eating too many fruits and veggies?!?!?!
I know I'm not getting my 5 servings. Like fi_burke said, it is kinda hard! Part of my problem is that I'm mildly allergic to a lot of fresh fruits. I would load up on more veggies, but I don't have enough time to cook them.
I get way more than 2 1/2 cups of vegetables, but I find the fruit harder to do.
Hey Shipwrecks... that sucks about being allergic to fresh fruits :(. Strawberries and chopped pineapple made me much more successful than i would have been without them.
To solve your 'no time to cook them' problem... I highly recommend roasting or sautee-ing a whole lot of veggies in one go and stashing them in the fridge til youre ready to use them. Roasted veggies keep really well, and can easily be added to a fritatta, to pasta, or just nuked and topped with balsamic vinegar and eaten as is.
Also: making big batches of ratatouille won't hurt either!
Frozen veggies helped me increase my veg intake. They don't go bad before you can eat them, and they're easy to cook in the microwave (and they come pre-chopped!). Just put the portion you want into a bowl and add a splash of water. Invert a plate over the bowl to keep the moisture in while cooking (green alternative to plastic wrap). Sip wine while the microwave does the work.
Flavoring? Salt, butter, fresh cracked pepper goes with just about everything. Mmmmmm, butter. I've also been known to spoon various bottled sauces over the veggies if I get bored of butter (bored of butter? hah, right). Like bottled spaghetti sauce, bottled tapenade or other condiment, dijon mustard mixed + vinegar + olive oil, "'magic sauce" heated briefly in the microwave (1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp vinegar, 1 clove crushed garlic, 1 Tbsp melted butter, sugar or stevia to taste).
I've started having a smoothie everyday for breakfast, makes it much easier. I usually do 1 banana (frozen) 1-2 cups water (depending on how juicy the fruit is) 1 md apple, 1 cup other fruit (whatever is in season, strawberry, peaches, etc) and a cup of greens (kale or spinach usually). You can't even taste the greens (although it does look a bit like swamp water) all you taste is the fruit, and I'm starting my day with 3 servings of fruit and 1 of veggie.
I definitely get at least five servings a day if not more. I usually got enough fruit but before I was vegetarian I didn't always get the recommended servings of vegetables. Now I add vegetables to everything for texture and getting enough has been a breeze.
Smoothies for breakfast is sound advice. I do the same, except that I use milk, whatever variety I have on hand (dairy, almond, hazelnut) and oats to make it more nutrient packed. I soak whole rolled oats in a bowl with plenty of milk, making sure all oats are covered in milk. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, I get ready for work or prep fruits or whatever. Then I pour the oats-n-milk into the blender, add a whole banana, whatever fruits (and veggiess) I want to add and always at least two spoonfuls of wheat germ and sometimes ground flax. When I want something a little different, I'll add nuts, ice, honey, vanilla extract, cinnamon or dried currants. But it's so yummy and feels amazing to have such a fresh treat in the morning!
As for including more vegetables in my meal, if I take sandwiches to work, I take a bowl of frozen veggies as a side dish (besides the chips). I've even gotten into the habit of having a whole small to medium mango right after lunch. So delicious!
Frozen vegetables definitely do the trick! I only wish that there wre more varieties besides the carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, etc. :-/
I printed the PDF from Chow. Thanks! Hanging on my refrigerator now.
Apparently I don't have to fret...I eat fruit like nobody's business. Probably way more than I need to, actually.
@Anita83, I blanch and freeze batches of greens (winter greens work especially well, but softer greens like spinach would work too). It's a great way to store a variety of farmers market produce in a small amount of space!
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/csa-box-tip-blanch-freeze-winter-greens-140746
Most fruit has too much sugar for me. I have to watch my carbs in order to control my weight and that means fruit is out for the most part, outside of a handful of berries now and then. But I eat plenty of vegetables.
Love that graphic, thanks! I always wonder if I'm eating a serving's worth or not (usually I'm eating more - yippee!) And, just to clarify, because it's not obvious to some people, the recommendation is to eat at least 2 c fruit 2.5 c veggies daily....not to limit yourself to that! More is better! And to the person who frets that they eat plenty of vegs but not fruit - don't worry about it, you're doing great! (unless you are counting 5 orders of french fries as 5 servings!)
@marla2, you're absolutely right. I fixed my wording. Thanks for pointing that out!