The Fast and the Fiber-ous - Fuel Your Health at Ludicrous Speeds with This Tip!

You might be living life in the fast lane—but if your plate’s running empty of veg, you're headed for a slow crash. In this episode, we're shifting gears on everything you think you know about produce!

Buckle up as we break down:

• Why the official fruit and veggie recs are basically driving with the brakes on—science shows we need way more for maximum health benefits!
• How produce protects your cells like Dom protects his crew—blocking inflammation, stabilizing blood sugar, and fueling every system under the hood.
• And good news, speedster: hitting your produce goals has never been easier. I’ll show you realistic, no-BS ways to boost your intake without stalling your lifestyle.

It's time to build a body that runs clean, fast, and furious—for the long haul. Let’s ride!

Resources:

Download 5 Ways to 5 a Day (Fr33 Guide)

Work with Aimee

Photography by: Dai Ross Photography

Podcast Cover Art: Lilly Kate Creative

Find Research Citations and Transcript at Blasphemous Nutrition on Substack

Work with Aimee

Photography by: Dai Ross Photography

Podcast Cover Art: Lilly Kate Creative

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Transcript

0:00

Hey Rebels. Welcome to Blasphemous Nutrition. Consider this podcast your pantry full of clarity, perspective, and the nuance needed to counter the superficial health advice so freely given on the internet. I am Amy, the unapologetically candid host of Blasphemous Nutrition and a double degreed nutritionist with 20 years experience. I'm here to share a more nuanced take. On living and eating well to sustain and recover your health. If you found most health advice to be so generic is to be meaningless or so extreme that it's unrealistic. And you don't mind the occasional F-bomb, you've come to the right place. From dissecting the latest nutrition trends to breaking down published research and sharing my own clinical experiences, I'm on a mission to foster clarity amidst all the confusion and empower you to have the health you need to live a life you love. Now, let's get started. Oh my goodness, folks, welcome back to Blasphemous Nutrition. I am happy to be back behind the mic to give you the latest if you're new here or simply forgot who the hell I am because it's been a hot minute. I am the slightly naughty and sometimes scandalous host of blasphemous nutrition. Aimee and I am probably the most enthusiastic professional produce promoter you have ever known, and today I am gonna talk about produce. I feel like so much of the last year I was really emphasizing protein and why protein is so crucial for our health and the rest of the internet has finally caught up with me. So I'm gonna switch gears and discuss this second of the two questions that I ask you to ask yourselves when you sit down to a meal. The first question, of course, being where is my protein? And the second question being, where is my produce? It is clear to me that hardly anyone in the English speaking western world asks themselves that question as produce intake in industrialized nations is. Pretty abysmal. Now, most governments do recommend that we get five or more servings of vegetables and fruits daily, and 90% of the American population neglect to meet that minimum. 70% of Australians are falling short and two thirds of UK nationals, and the Irish population is neglecting to get their five a day. Now, that said, the five a day guideline is not actually the bar that we should be aiming for if we wanna do everything possible to ward off disease. Science supports closer to 10 servings. Double that five a day guideline as being needed for optimal health benefits. Now, when assessing population data, there are multiple studies that indicate the more vegetables and fruits that we eat, the greater the benefit to our health. Collectively, the research caps out at 10 servings a day, not because more servings of vegetables have not been shown to be better, but simply because there's not enough people out there eating more than 10 servings of produce a day to ascertain whether consuming more than that has any additional benefit. So. Given the fact that many people struggle to get even two to three servings combined of fruit and vegetable a day, leveling up to 10 servings is no small task. And honestly, it isn't something that I recommend to most people straight outta the gate as an initial goal, aside from being a radical change in how you look at your meals. It can also be somewhat distressing to the digestive system as it struggles to adjust from minimal amounts to maximal amounts. So if you're aiming to increase your produce intake, you do want to do it in a gradual. Incremental approach rather than jumping all in and going full board with injecting massive amounts of fiber into your system. All that said, when we set the bar of success at five a day, which is what our government agencies recommend, and we think that is optimal. Then it's really easy to think that, you know, if you get two or three a day, you're doing pretty well and you're doing good enough because you think, well, if five a day is optimal and you're getting two or three, then you're basically getting 40 to 60% of what you need. Right? But when the research indicates that more servings is better and 10 servings a day shows greater benefit than five. If you're only getting two or three, you're actually only getting 20 to 30% of your needs rather than 40 to 60. So for some people, creating this stretch goal of 10 a day instead of five a day motivates them to raise their own bar, and it gives them that extra push so that maybe they consume an average of five to six servings of vegetables and fruits a day instead of three. And if you think about it, and you take it from that perspective of using 10 a day as your stretch goal, and that allows you to level up your daily average to five or six servings a day, you not only vastly increase your own health and the nutrient density of your diet, but you basically get to have bragging rights as being the top of your class among your countrymen. Now, last Autumn, I spoke with Sarah Ballantine on this podcast and she said that the magnitude of benefit does slow down after five servings. so getting close to those five a day, if you're averaging one or two servings of vegetables and fruits, does more for your overall health, then say pushing for 10 a day if you're already getting eight servings, if that makes sense. Uh, stated another way, you know, While there is a linear correlation showing that every serving of produce reduces your risk of death and disease from all causes, the difference in those outcomes from two servings to six is more impactful than say six to 10. So if there is any great takeaway from this episode today, it is that getting five servings of vegetables and fruit each day is a non-negotiable if you want to take serious, dedicated action to preserving or recovering your health. If you have chronic disease aiming for seven to 10 servings a day based upon your physical size, your biological sex, your activity levels right, is probably going to be your best course of action. Given that you are. Dealing with chronic disease. Now, that's not advice you often hear, and I think that most people believe that if the baseline is so low being two to three servings a day at best, then being radically honest and transparent about how far off the mark we are will ultimately scare people away and they'll just throw in the towel regardless of whether or not the greatest gains come from those first five servings of produce, I think all of us are given a disservice if we neglect to disclose that the benefits. Keep accumulating. Even if we consume more than five servings a day, let's give the rock stars an opportunity to excel by letting them know it is in their best interest to do so. But hey, don't take my word for it. Let's talk about the research.. High produce intake is linked to lower risk of chronic diseases, including nine of the top 10 causes of death in the United States. when I was doing my master's program and finishing my capstone paper, I looked at the research on produce consumption and the risk and severity of disease for the top 10 causes of death in the us. The only thing I could not find research for was accidents. Whether it's cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, pulmonary diseases, pneumonia, even suicide consuming produce lowers the risk and severity of that affliction. Now, a meta-analysis and systematic review of 95 population studies across Europe, Asia, the US, and Australia, found that 800 grams of produce a day, which is basically those 10 servings, reduces premature death from all causes Now when it comes to cancer. the meta-analysis that I'm discussing. Showed that the preventative aspects reached a peak at about 600 grams a day. But with regards to all other causes of mortality, benefits kept going for every 200 grams or about one and a half cups of produce consumed each day. Your relative risk of heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and overall death decreases by varying amounts, ranging from 3% to 18% depending on that disease. Now, when they compared people who eat 500 grams of produce a day, which is about three to four cups, versus those who are eating very little less than two ounces a day, the relative risk reductions are even higher. So compared to those who eat hardly any vegetables or that soggy. Iceberg lettuce on the Big Mac, right? And that's all the veg they get in a day. If you take those folks and you compare them to individuals who are eating five or so servings of produce a day, the relative risk reductions are even higher compared to those who eat hardly anything. Those who get five a day have a 28% reduced risk of heart disease, 27% reduced risk of dying from any cause. Now, when we jump up to those 800 grams a day, those 10 servings a day, the benefits increase further with about 31% lower risk of death from any cause at all. Now, I want to make a very important distinction here, relative risk, which is what I'm discussing. Is not absolute risk. When we are looking at observational studies, it is impossible to assess absolute risk reduction. So what's the difference? My friends, the devil is in the details as always, and this is super, super important. When you are looking at any piece of research or anything that the media is talking about, when they are talking about risk reduction, they are nearly always discussing relative risk reduction, not absolute risk reduction. And that tends to. Exaggerate the benefit. So what is the difference? Relative risk reduction measures, how much eating more fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of disease compared to the baseline group. That consumes little to none. It's really useful for comparing risk between groups, right? So those who eat hardly anything versus those who get five a day, but it doesn't tell you your absolute risk. That is dependent upon individual factors like your age, your genetics, your lifestyle, and so on. So let's translate this into something more concrete. CDC data reports that all Americans have a one in five chance or a 20% absolute risk of dying from heart disease over the course of their lifetime from beginning to end. Now, that risk jumps up quite a bit if you live to be 40. And data from the Framingham study suggests that half 50% of American men over 40 will die of heart disease and 33% of women. In the United States, over 40 will end up succumbing to heart disease. Now, in general, the average American also eats the least amount of produce of any Western industrialized nations. So using the CDC data, Americans who consume very little produce have a 20% absolute risk of heart disease over the course of their lifetime. However, according to the meta-analysis that I am discussing here, those who eat 800 grams of produce a day or 10 servings of produce a day have that 24% relative risk reduction in heart disease. So an American who eats 10 servings of produce a day may expect that their lifetime risk of death from heart disease will drop by 24% of that original 20% absolute risk. And this is where we do the math, which at least for me is very difficult to do when listening to a podcast rather than seeing something written down. So I'm gonna do all that for you. 24% of the 20% absolute risk ends up bringing the absolute risk of dying down to 15.6% from 20%. If you get those. 10 servings of produce daily. Now, if you are over 40, and based on what I can see of the demographics, for those who are listening to this podcast, most of you are over 40. So let's see what your risk reduction is. if you get 10 servings of produce a day and you're an American male over 40, with that 50% absolute risk of dying from heart disease, your absolute risk drops from 50% down to 39%. Or an 11% reduction in absolute risk. Now, if you're a woman over 40, consuming 800 grams of produce a day in the United States, you will reduce your absolute risk of heart disease from 33% to 25.7%, now dropping your risk from 50% to 39% if you're an American male over 40. Or from 33% to roughly 26%. If you are an American woman, over 40 probably is not dramatic enough an improvement in your absolute risk of dying from heart disease. I. Unless you have a strong family history of heart disease, if multiple members of your family have died of a heart attack and you know, looking at your family tree that your risk is pretty high, then this is one way that you can pretty significantly impact your own personal risk. So the big takeaway here is that if there is a 20% relative risk reduction, which when we are looking at the scientific literature as interpreted by the media, they are nearly always discussing relative risk reduction because they are looking at studies that are observational. Okay? So that does not mean your chance of dying is 20% less. It means your chance of dying is 20% less than it would be otherwise. Based upon your own personal lifestyle and genetic risk, it's super, super easy to get bogged down in the weeds. But what is consistently shown in population data is that those who eat more produce live longer and stay healthier during their lifespan than those who don't. The greater your personal risk of chronic disease, or if you already have a chronic disease, the more impactful produce can be in your life. And here's the deal. It's not just for those who have chronic disease or a high risk. If you live with general undiagnosed malaise, there can be a massive impact as well. I see this every week in clinical practice, every day I see at least one client who does not have a diagnosed disease that they are living with, but who is just aging in a way that they're not excited about. They're tired. They have chronic low levels of aches and pains that they just assume are because they're getting older. They struggle with anxiety and depression and mood swings, and they just don't feel as vital as they know they could be. Produce is often huge for even this population who is just kind of feeling shitty day to day. Okay? It doesn't just help reduce reliance on over the counter medication or prescription medication, but it also improves your quality of life as measured by your energy, how easy it is to get up in the morning, how stable your energy is throughout the day, your overall vitality, your willingness to do something after work hours, because you have the desire and energy to do it. Even clarity of mind, your ability to focus during work, your ability to stay present for your family outside of work. These are all things that I see happen when people consume more produce than their current baseline. Now that which I observe in a clinical setting is not always proven in the research. However, the research does show strong associations between a high produce intake and better mood, as well as reduced severity of disease in those who already have a chronic disease, such as diabetes or kidney disease. And what is it about produce that makes such a difference? There are, I am positive, and this is a hill I will die on. I know that there are probably multiple factors that have yet to be discovered in these foods. However, there are several compounds that we already know about that do make a difference. Vegetables and fruits are rich in polyphenols, flavonoids, and carotinoids, and these reduce inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation is a root cause of metabolic dysfunction that can lead to diabetes, heart disease, as well as chronic joint pain and autoimmune disorders. Consuming an anti-inflammatory diet rich in produce helps balance the immune response so that it is better able to combat inflammation and there are a multitude of compounds in produce that helps support this more balanced response. Additionally. Vegetables particularly, and some fruits are quite high in fiber, and a high fiber intake feeds our beneficial gut bacteria in the colon, right? And the small intestines. Our gut bacteria play a huge, huge role in immune system health and keeping our immune system in balance so that it shows up to put out inflammatory fires, corner nefarious bacteria and viruses and pathogens that could cause disease, but does not go out of control and burn the whole fucking building down in the process. Right? That is out of control in inflammation is not what we're looking for. So when we have a diverse, abundant population of beneficial bacteria in the gut, it's like having the foundational support to enable a fully staffed fire, police, and medical crew to quickly and competently deal with any emergency when it arises. Think the opposite of Los Angeles. Okay. Now, while whole grains get touted for their high fiber content, vegetables, fruits and beans deliver a much more powerful punch than grains do So yeah, oatmeal's good, but your produce ultimately is better. Having a diversity of fiber sources is also key to maintaining that happy, healthy microbiome. Taking a spoonful of Metamucil each day and calling it good is not actually a complete and comprehensive plan for gut health, even if it's the only thing that your primary care provider knows to tell you. Having a diversity of fiber from soluble and insoluble sources supports that balance as well as diversity within the gut, helping to regulate the immune system and again, prevent the excessive inflammation that makes everything go to shit when gut bacteria are imbalanced, or what is also known as bacterial dysbiosis. This can lead to chronic low grade inflammation, which is a major driver of cardiovascular disease via increased inflammation of the arteries. Type two diabetes through inflammation's impact on insulin sensitivity, damaging the receptors on the cell so that insulin cannot dock on the cell and transport glucose effectively. And low grade chronic inflammation is a massive driver of autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's, multiple sclerosis. Now, you may be wondering, how does the bacteria in my gut lead to inflammation outside of my gut? Very simply speaking, having an imbalance of beneficial bacteria to pathogenic or negative bacteria, having low diversity, a population that is not particularly robust or healthy in the gut, leaves our safety crew under-resourced. So there could be various bad actors or even just simple wear and tear on the body that generates inflammation within the gut, within the intestines, and this weakens the integrity of the intestinal wall, allowing compounds including inflammatory compounds or immune activating compounds to travel from the gut into the bloodstream. Now, when these compounds get into the blood from the gut, and they aren't supposed to be there, but they're only there because of this wear and tear, this leaky gut that has occurred, the immune system becomes alerted that, oh, someone's here who shouldn't be here. This doesn't look right. So the immune system gets ramped up and this begins the inflammatory process. Now, when this is a chronic thing that's happening, because the gut is leaky, is the term we use, right? the non-scientific, layman's term, leaky gut. If that is a chronic situation, then the immune system is always seeing these strangers that don't belong going through the blood system and working to stop them, and so that inflammation is chronic and ongoing. There can also be conditions where the immune system has been thrown out of balance due to nutrient deficiency, due to disease, due to chronic ongoing inflammation over time. And this imbalance in the immune system can create a situation where the body can start the inflammatory process, right, but it can't stop it. Again, we don't have enough firemen to put out the fire or we drained our reservoir and there's no water available to put out the fire. Something like that. So having the situation of chronic inflammation in the body that is unable to be resolved either due to consistent ongoing irritation or that imbalance in the immune system, perpetuates cell damage throughout the rest of the body as well as the brain. And this is how a compromised gut can be, the root cause of chronic joint pain, mood disorders, diabetes, as well as cardiovascular disease in some individuals. Research does show that consuming a high fiber diet of 35 to 50 grams of fiber or more per day, significantly supports a balanced blood sugar and reduces the risk as well as the severity of diabetes. Now, the average Western diet has about 15 to 20 grams of fiber with the US being at the bottom of that range and Australia being at the upper end of that range. So regardless of where you live, if you live in an English speaking country, you can see that we have loads of room to improve when it comes to getting more fiber in the diet. A mix of soluble and insoluble fiber seems to be the key to getting the best results here. It's a millage of what my Midwestern farming ancestors would have referred to at roughage. Roughage resists digestion. It adds bulk to our stool. It is found in leafy greens, fruit skins, and beans. Soluble fiber soaks up water and it turns into this gel-like viscous substance. You can find soluble fiber in most fruits and vegetables, as well as oats, avocados, flax seed, cilium husk. That is your meta, my friend, as well as beans and nuts. Now, fiber and phytonutrients. Found in vegetables and fruits do help regulate our blood sugar. So a high fiber diet at 35 grams a day or more helps significantly with blood sugar control if you have diabetes. But it also reduces the risk of getting diabetes in the first place, making it crucial If this is something that you are concerned about. Now I mentioned phytonutrients also support blood sugar. It's pretty cool how some of these plant compounds help our body utilize insulin better and facilitate the shuttling of glucose in the cell out. Some phytonutrients like quercetin, which is found in apples in onions and berries directly stimulate GLP one secretion and can therefore support the release of insulin making your body more efficient at clearing sugar from the blood. Other phytochemicals, such as polyphenols reduce insulin resistance so they help your cells receive glucose and utilize it instead of letting it hang around in the blood causing damage. And this is one reason why a Mediterranean diet is so strongly associated with reduced risk of diabetes with a foundation of olive oil, vegetables, and fruits. It's really high in polyphenols Now, additionally, there are certain plant compounds that inhibit enzymes that are responsible for digesting carbohydrates. you could think of these compounds as speed bumps on the road of sugar absorption Now, these are also polyphenols, but they're found in black soybeans and other black beans, as well as dark colored berries and various herbs and spices. So when we consume these polyphenols, it results in a slower, more controlled rise in blood sugar phytonutrients also fight inflammation and reduce oxidative stress in the body. And blood sugar issues are not just about consuming excess sugar or carbs in the diet. They're also heavily connected to inflammation. Consuming phytonutrients from vegetables, reduces the amount of oxidative damage happening all throughout the body, which protects it from long-term metabolic dysfunction in addition to pretty much every other disease known to man. Now, you may be wondering what phytonutrients pack, the biggest punch, where do I wanna go to get these phytonutrients? With regards to blood sugar regulation and metabolic health, cinnamon, curcumin, berberine are super, super impactful and have some pretty good research supporting their ability to help balance blood sugar. Cinnamon, contains a phytonutrient called. Aldehyde and it boosts our insulin sensitivity to help keep blood sugar levels steadier. The super cool fucking thing about this guys is just three to six grams of ground cinnamon daily is an effective dose. It is really, really doable. That's less than half a tablespoon of ground cinnamon a day. So if you put cinnamon in your oatmeal and roast some butternut squash or acorn squash or yams with cinnamon, you can really, really easily get that dose on a daily basis. I also really like to put cinnamon in my coffee. That's really yummy. Curcumin is the compound that is found in turmeric and it improves glucose tolerance and helps with long-term blood sugar regulation, even lowering hemoglobin A1C over time. So this phytonutrient is responsible for turmeric, really bright color, okay? And it has very, very potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in the body. This is how it is believed to improve insulin resistance and lower blood sugar over time. Berberine is a supplement derived from plants that we don't eat. Like Golden Seal, Oregon grape philodendron, and so it is consumed in supplement form there's quite a bit of longstanding research on Berberine's impact on blood sugar and its ability to lower blood sugar. It seems to be able to do this by increasing insulin receptor sensitivity, similar to many glucose lowering medications. So berberine can lower fasting glucose levels as well as post meal glucose levels in individuals who have diabetes as well as those who do not. It is interesting to note too, that there is some research suggesting that polyphenols and fiber when consumed together as they're found in unprocessed plant foods, slow down glucose absorption even better due to their prebiotic effect in the gut microbiota. So do. Put cinnamon in your oatmeal, add turmeric to your stir fries, and if you take berberine, do so with a high fiber meal to potentially compound the benefits of these phytonutrients. So while all this research is super duper exciting, the reality is we definitely need more clinical studies before we can say swap out medication for supplements. I'm not recommending y'all do that. That's not a great idea. If you want to reduce your. Reliance upon medication. You need to work very closely with a healthcare provider to do so safely and to ascertain if that is even realistic in your situation. There are a multitude of factors that impact absorbability as well as dosing of supplements, and they don't all work for everybody. But all that said, adding more cinnamon to your oatmeal and generally increasing the phytochemical power of your diet. There is zero downside to that. At the end of the day, what really matters is what happens to you, not what the research shows. And for multiple years, I've led produce focused challenge groups online and have worked one-on-one with clients to increase their produce intake as a tool to meet their goals, whatever it is that they're coming in to see me for. And what I consistently see is that when individuals increase their produce consumption, they have more stable, improved energy. They have reduced cravings for sugar. And some of them also end up with increased cravings for vegetables. And it always freaks them out, but it makes me laugh every time. There is often also reduced signs of inflammation, less joint pain, faster wound healing, more stable moods. Additionally, many of them are able to reduce the dose of medication that they take, whether it's Tylenol for a headache or digestive meds to keep things going, or even lowering their need for blood pressure and blood sugar medications. So I wanna reiterate too, that these benefits don't just happen. If someone reaches 10 servings of produce a day, they typically occur at smaller doses. The key is consistent daily dedication. And when individuals go above four or five servings a day, upwards of 6, 7, 8 servings of produce a day, I do definitely see more significant changes in their biology and physiology. So what does 800 grams a day of produce look like? Again, that's 10 servings. And honestly if you're confused about what a serving of vegetables actually is, it's for a damn good reason. Even the research is inconsistent about what it calls a serving of vegetables, which I found absolutely infuriating when I began diving into produce and its effect on the body in grad school. Some studies call a serving of vegetables 70 grams. Others say it's a hundred grams, and if there's no consensus among the researchers, how the hell can we expect to get a clearer message to the general population? Right. That said, by and large, when it comes to government organizations making recommendations. They go on the average of what is seen in the research and it tends to be between 80 and 90 grams. Now, that's easier to measure on a scale, but it's pretty impossible to visualize because it takes a lot more volume from spinach than it does a carrot to get to 90 grams. Right? And that's why produce servings are so bloody confusing. There's no easy way around this guys other than memorizing the following recommendations. For a serving size, a serving of vegetables is equal to two cups of raw leafy greens. For most people, it's gonna be roughly what you can hold in two hands cupped together. As serving of vegetables is also the equivalent of half a cup of cooked veggies of any kind, or a medium bell pepper or a carrot. Again, size matters here, so if you want to be well educated on what a serving of vegetables is, I highly recommend working with a food scale for a little bit and getting a sense of what the volume looks like for the vegetables and fruits that you consume the most often so that you can make better estimates for yourself in the future. Now average daily intake of produce is way, way below 800 grams. Across the board, across nations, most countries recommend that their population consumes 400 grams of produce a day, and that's your five a day, 400 grams. The World Health Organization, however, recommends 400 to 600 grams of produce daily. That said, worldwide, anywhere from 10% to 18% of any population ends up meeting that goal. Lower income nations, middle income nations, about 18% of their population reaches that five a day thresholds. But as nations get more industrialized, their produce intake drops, I have a feeling that this is likely due to a combination of factors including less time cooking and preparing meals in the home. increased accessibility of more processed shelf stable foods as one has access to them through higher income personally, as well as the increased GDP of a nation, right? But those aren't the only barriers that people face. When it comes to produce barriers, more people face challenges getting enough vegetables than fruit. It's just easier to get more fruit servings than vegetable servings. A day. Fruit is more likely to be portable. It requires less preparation, and for most people, they find fruit to be more palatable than vegetables. Now, that said, the research pretty strongly favors vegetable consumption over fruit consumption when it comes to nutrients per bite, as well as improved health outcomes. Green leafy vegetables and cruciferous veggies like your cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, et cetera. These consistently show up in the literature as being the healthiest of the lot. That's not to say don't eat fruit. Particularly if you have, a high risk of stroke, citrus fruits are very, very, helpful at stroke prevention. And those dark berries are pretty much on par with spinach and other super dense vegetables with regards to how amazing they are from a phytonutrient standpoint. So I'm not saying don't ever eat fruit. However, I am saying for most of you, veggies are more of an issue than fruit is. When making recommendations to my clients, I often encourage them to have one fruit for every four servings of vegetables. Most of the individuals I work with are concerned about aging well, about maintaining a stable blood sugar in a healthy range. They're concerned about maintaining their weight or even losing weight. And most of the folks I talk to are over the age of 35. If you're younger than that or you're in a stage of life where there's a lot of growth like childhood or pregnancy, you'll do fine with two servings of fruit per every three veggies. Again, especially if those fruits are coming from the citrus family or from berries, because the research does show this is optimal. Those fruits really shine when it comes to cardiovascular and brain health. And if your three veggies come from greens and cruciferous veggies and. I mean, you're rocking the csba. The devil really is in the details, and I wanna emphasize there are no rigid, hard, and fast rules to life. Folks, with any recommendation, you need to assess where you are at currently, what your personal goals are, and what is reasonable and realistic for you at this time, and move in that direction. If you don't like greens and you hate cruciferous veggies, just find a damn vegetable you like and eat more of that. I'm not gonna get picky, okay? Basically across the board, we all need to be eating more vegetables, and I'm gonna harp on that because fruit, while we don't get enough fruit either, veggies are really where we are slacking hardcore and paying the price in a big way. That said. There are reasons for that, right? Whether you don't feel you have enough time to prep veggies or you find that the taste or the texture is a challenge. There are many obstacles that a lot of us face when it comes to consuming more veggies. The amount of prep time that produce takes is the most common obstacle that people come to me with. But here's the great news. There has never in the history of recorded time, been a more convenient, place in time or way to increase your produce intake as there is now in the industrialized modern world. We've got freezer options. We have pre-cut fresh produce in grocery stores. We have delivery boxes of high produce meals that can show up at our front door, mostly prepared. It's pretty fucking amazing, folks. I'm loving it. There are so many more opportunities now that take a great deal of prep work out of consuming produce. Additionally, prep work can be done in small batches at 10 to 15 minute intervals here and there. And as you become more familiar with preparing and brandishing those knife skills, you will find you do get quicker. As with all things, sometimes the lack of familiarity is. The very thing that slows you down, and the best way to get out of that intimidation is through the experience itself. You can take a produce focused cooking class, take a knife skills class, uh, watch videos on YouTube that can show you all sorts of ways to make your time in the kitchen quicker, more efficient and better organized. There's lots of workarounds here. You just need to look for those opportunities, ask questions, do some research, and stay committed and determined to make the improvements, and it will totally happen. Now, aside from buying pre-washed, pre-chopped veggies or frozen veggies, you can also batch cook and roast, large portions of vegetables and have them on hand to toss into soup, stir fries or lunch bowls throughout the week. This is one of my favorite hacks so I'll take a cookie sheet and I'll have. Several different veggies on there. I'll divide those vegetables into two or three sections on that cookie sheet and season them in two to three different ways. So that way I have some flavor variety because I get bored very easily and I like to shake things up. Additionally, if you are making larger portions, you can freeze extra for later, and that's another great way to save time. You're in the kitchen doing some prep work anyway, so make more than what you need and toss it in the freezer for later. Or when you simply don't feel like cooking, right, your future self will. Thank you, I promise. And this is a great tactic for soups, for casseroles, as well as individual ingredients like. Roasted carrots, diced onions or wilted greens that haven't yet gone bad. You just wanna use whatever you have frozen into a cooked dish, not a raw one, because freezing completely changes the texture. Speaking of texture, texture and taste is another thing that some people struggle with when they are looking to consume more vegetables in their diet. Some of this may just be due to lack of exposure or being exposed to situations where those vegetables were really poorly prepared. As a child of the 20th century, it was very common for children in my generation to grow up, having only iceberg lettuce solids, canned peas and beans, and really nasty ass soggy canned spinach. I have seen countless people realize they actually do like vegetables. They just had never had them properly prepared before. There's a lot to be said for a crisp, tender flott of broccoli versus an over steamed or boiled frozen flott of broccoli. Some people also struggle with the bitter note that many vegetables can have, especially some lettuces or cruciferous veggies. And in these cases, adding a little bit of that vegetable mixed in with one you like, like a smattering of arugula in a spinach salad, right? Or pairing those vegetables with flavors you already love like cheese, certain spices or dips. That can be your gateway to expanding your palate and increasing the variety of vegetables that you consume. And honestly, I have zero problems if you drown your broccoli and ranch dressing or cheese, if that's what it takes. Seasoning and preparation methods matter quite a lot and experimenting to find what you enjoy may end up being an essential part of your process. Do you prefer roasting to sauteing? How about fermented veggies? What if you blend it in a soup? All of these things can significantly change the texture as well as the flavor of a vegetable. And when done well, that can be the game changer that you need to get on board with a specific veggie or a family of vegetables. So I recommend with your experimentation that this first be done in a restaurant. It's a pretty low commitment. You don't have to buy a bunch of a certain kind of vegetable that you're nervous about or unfamiliar with if you don't like it. You don't have like a shit ton of leftovers that you have to deal with. And whoever's preparing it in the restaurant probably knows how to do it better than you do, at least at the start. So try a new vegetable in a restaurant or one that, you know, you kind of don't really like it, but the way that it sounds on the menu might be passable. That's all we're looking for is passable. You don't have to love it. You just have to be willing to eat it. Over time, your palate will adjust and expand to that particular flavor, and as you get more acclimated to it, you'll find that it doesn't taste as bad as you remember it, and you could even grow to like it. So find something at the restaurant. Give it a try. Try it a couple different times, and then if you feel up to it, work on recreating that recipe at home as you get more comfortable cooking or as you feel more confident with that specific vegetable. But you know only if you want to. If you just wanna eat it out at a restaurant because you don't cook, that's great. Let other people do that work. I don't care. Just eat your vegetables. One other thing that a lot of people are concerned about is food waste as well as storing, because veggies take up a lot of room in refrigerators, and if you live in a city or you live outside of North America, your storage space may leave a lot to be desired. If you have very little storage and you need to go to the grocery store more often, start to integrate those trips to the grocery store more intentionally With your existing daily routines and habits, you can keep an ongoing living list of things that you need on your phone, so when you're running low on produce or other essentials and you need to go to the grocery store, it will help you become more efficient on those trips out. If you do not have a lot of storage, you'll also wanna be more intentional with rotating your veggies in strategic ways, like using your fresh produce first and always having frozen on hand as a backup. Now if you live up north. Or way south during the winter, you can store some of that produce outside in a box that is animal proof, or you know, if you have a terrace. Don't forget that the outdoors can make a wonderful refrigerator or freezer during certain times of the year. I definitely do take advantage of that for the winter holidays and often use my terrace as a backup refrigerator if I'm doing a lot of food prep Additionally, longer lasting, more robust vegetables, especially those that come into season in the autumn and winter, like carrots. Beets, cabbage, winter squash. Use those in the last part of the week and plan on using more delicate produce like mushrooms, berries, and lettuces earlier in the week since they go bad more quickly. And they also are less likely to get shoved in the back of the fridge and forgotten about if you use them first. Now with any new endeavor, there will be more thinking, more strategizing, and more planning at the start to develop whatever system is going to work best for you. But eventually it will run in the background alongside other routine habits that you don't really think that much about anymore. Now, when it comes to strategically increasing your vegetable intake, I. Beyond what is habitual, which I'm assuming is anywhere from one to three servings a day. There are a couple of key strategies that my clients have found very helpful. First, you wanna front load your day, whichever meal, be it breakfast or lunch is your first meal of the day, make sure you put vegetables in that meal and that will help prevent you from having to play catch up later on. It also puts your body in a really great place for better blood sugar management throughout the day, preventing higher peaks and lower valleys, even in subsequent meals if you start the day with a high produce meal, so add a couple handfuls of spinach to your eggs. If you make a smoothie in the morning, put in a couple handfuls of greens or a cup of frozen. I. Cauliflower or some zucchini in there. Uh, avocado toast can be a great way to get a high fiber produce item first thing in the morning, especially if you want something quick heading out the door. doubling up on your vegetables at meals is another easy way to increase your produce consumption. That doesn't take a lot of extra thinking. Instead of preparing a single vegetable serving at dinner, I. Make it two to three different types or double your serving if you're dining out. For instance, I love having Vietnamese FA in the wintertime, but I always, always order my FA with extra veggies, and this helps displace some of those noodles, right? Often when I order FA and I get extra veggies and extra protein, that huge bowl of soup will last me three meals, which is kind of awesome. Another way to get more produce, in particularly if you have a sensitive palate or you live with children who don't like veggies, you can blend them into smoothies, right? So in addition to leafy greens, which are. Often used in smoothies. You can add zucchini, you can add canned pumpkin or cooked carrots. Even frozen cauliflower is fantastic in smoothies, mixing shredded veggies into meatballs, meatloaf burgers, that's another really great way to get some veggies in. And that was a strategy that I used a lot when my son was a toddler and on this veggie hatred kick that was emotionally devastating for me to live through. it was a hard time folks. I. Struggled. I struggled a lot for a year and a half, but it paid off because now the dude eats raw purple cabbage as a snack and I have to tell him no and prevent him from eating all of the bell peppers in the house as a snack when he gets home from school,, because I need them for dinner. So it did pay off in the end. Stay strong fellow parents, stay strong. You can also make shredded veggies or blended veggies into a marinara sauce as well. That works quite well for people who tend to have textural issues more so than people who have very, very sensitive flavor palettes. But again, mild vegetables like zucchini, or sweeter vegetables like roasted carrots. Can often be worked into some of those meat dishes more successfully than say, cauliflower or broccoli, which has both a pretty fibrous texture as well as some strong flavors. Another way to get more veg in is to make veggies. Your snack of choice. You got hummus, you got guacamole, tahini, almond butter, peanut butter, ranch dressing, onion dip, like there are a lot of options for you to dip your veggies in. Find a couple that you like and let that be your motivation for consuming more. Snap peas, baby carrots, baby bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, Persian cucumbers. All of those are very, very low prep veggies. You can just open up the bag, rinse'em, and go. Or you can snack on kale chips or precut broccoli or cauliflower. Lots of great options. Now, guys, so I mean, I don't wanna say no excuses, but you know, compared to your grandparents and great grandparents, you really don't have any excuses. Keep it convenient. We have this option in our life now, make the most of it. Okay? Use ready to eat options like salad kits. Get those pre-cut veggies. Buy pre-made soups from the deli that are vegetable forward. Oftentimes the biggest obstacle that we have is the one between our ears. Having a preconceived notion of what this has to look like, what it means to eat healthy. You know that you only shop at the farmer's market, you eat a hundred percent organic, right? It's only grass fed or bust, or you have to prepare a whole week of meals in one afternoon. If you are attached to this process, that being so rigid and so perfect, you are setting yourself up to fail. The Instagram vision of healthy eating requires more time, more money, and more desire than most of us have at our fingertips. So instead of thinking that this process has to look a certain way, or that whatever planning strategy is being presented as a one size fits all plan is the only option there is. Look for the tiny cheats that get you closer and closer to a singular objective. Eating a minimum of five servings of vegetables and fruits every day. I am not asking you to, nor do you need to overhaul your diet overnight. Let's just begin by adding more. Add it at the first place you find it and then start looking for it in other places. Use that question, where is my produce at the start of every meal and every snack, and this will get your brain trained to look and find options throughout the day. If you want my support and access to my unique customized strategy to level up your produce intake, I do encourage you to get on the wait list for my next veg hunter experience. But in the meantime. Be sure to get my free five ways to five a Day guide for easy actionable strategies to increase your produce consumption to five servings a day. Now, the key to this is not perfection, it's consistency. Keep keeping produce top of mind, day in, day out, and continue to look for ways to fit it into your life rather than expecting your life to magically open up in such a way that produce finds its way to you. You need to stay a veg hunter, stay on the prowl and always be on the prowl, and then you'll start to discover all of the places in the world that vegetables are hiding and all of the different kinds of vegetables that you can hunt down and collect for your daily fair. Folks, that's it. Today I did not expect that I would talk so long about veggies, but that's actually pretty consistent and on brand because when it comes to veggies, I do get really excited and it's been a long time since I've talked about this particular passion of mine. So thank you for listening again. Download that guide five ways to five a Day so you can get started elevating your produce consumption today. And if you have not yet written a review, I would love to hear from you an honest review please, and be sure to like and subscribe to the podcast so you can continue to get more blasphemous Nutrition dropped into your ears as soon as that episode is released. Until next time, my blasphemous buddies, romaine, calm and Keratan. Any and all information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only, and is not to be misconstrued as offering medical advice. Listening to this podcast does not constitute a provider client relationship. Note, I'm not a doctor nor a nurse, and it is imperative that you utilize your brain and your medical team to make the best decisions for your own health. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked to this podcast. Are at the user's own risk. No information nor resources provided are intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Be a smart human and do not disregard or postpone obtaining medical advice for any medical condition you may have. Seek the assistance of your healthcare team for any such conditions and always do so before making any changes to your medical, nutrition or health plan.