If you like veggies but don’t eat enough of them, we’re here to help. There are endless reasons to add more vegetables to your plate, from disease prevention to gut health to weight loss. Plus, veggies are jam packed with vitamins and minerals known to help lower blood pressure, support immune health, and drive down inflammation.
Take beta-carotene, for example. The vitamin A precursor is found in vibrant veggies like pumpkin, carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes. The important nutrient boasts antioxidant properties and has been associated with a decreased risk of common chronic diseases, like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and metabolic syndrome.
Then there’s vitamin C. The water-soluble vitamin found in bell peppers and tomatoes bolsters immune protection against colds and also supports collagen production. Hello, glowy skin.
Ready to eat your way to better health? Keep reading for 10 easy (and delicious) ways to add more veggies to your diet.
10 Easy Ways to Eat More Veggies
01 – Make these Vegetable Egg Muffins for a great on-the-go veggie-packed breakfast.
02 – Add frozen or fresh greens, sweet potato, celery, or cucumber to smoothies.
03 – Stock up on raw, mini, grab-and-go veggies to eat as snacks. Mini-bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and baby carrots are some of my favorites.
04 – Stock your freezer with frozen, pre-cut vegetables (frozen veggies are just as nutritious as fresh veggies) so you can easily add them to stir-frys or have them as a quick side dish.
05 – Always order a non-starchy vegetables side dish when eating out. String beans, broccoli, brussels sprouts, spinach, and side salads are commonly available at many restaurants.
06 – Try a healthy meal delivery service like Sun Basket and have chefs do the work for you.
07 – Make a goal to eat every color vegetable (green, yellow, orange, red, purple, white) in one day.
08 – Eat a salad for lunch instead of a sandwich and try to toss in at least 3 different vegetables to the mix.
09 – Have a least 2 different types of vegetables with lunch and dinner (ex. baked chicken with roasted broccoli and baked sweet potatoes).
10 – Make half of your plate vegetables for every meal.
4 Easy Ways to Eat More Veggies, Even if You Hate How They Taste
Hate the way veggies taste? A lot of people didn’t grow up eating vegetables and find it hard to eat them because they aren’t used to the taste. However, you can work around this by trying these tips.
01 – Get yourself off of foods that are high-jacking your tastebuds, including:
- Refined sugar
- Artificial sugars
- Fast foods
- Processed foods
02 – Challenge yourself to re-try a vegetable every week. A lot of people think they hate the taste of veggies, however, when they try them, they’re pleasantly surprised. In our experience, these veggies are pretty well liked:
- Broccoli
- Bell peppers
- Spinach
- Tomatoes
03 – Try hiding vegetables in foods that you do like. Here are a few recipes that do a great job hiding veggies so you can’t taste them:
04 – Try having vegetable-based versions of your favorite foods. You can get these pre-prepared at most grocery stores and use them as substitutes in your favorite recipes:
- Replace spaghetti with zucchini noodles (zoodles)
- Swap lasagna noodles with thinly sliced eggplant or zucchini
- Sub out rice for cauliflower rice
- Replace pizza crust with cauliflower pizza crust
3 Easy Ways to Eat More Veggies if You Struggle With Changing Your Habits
Try focusing on incorporating new, healthy habits instead of stopping old, bad habits. By focusing on the things you can have instead of the things you can’t have, you will be more motivated and excited to make change. Not convinced? Here are some of our favorite coaching strategies for starting healthy habits.
01 – Make weekly SMART goals for increasing your veggie intake. SMART goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Action-based
- Realistic
- Time-based
Here are a few good examples of SMART goals:
- I will have 1 vegetable with lunch M – F this week.
- I will try 1 new vegetable for dinner every Monday this month.
02 – Start small. Try having a vegetable with one meal per day for a month and build up to all meals and snacks over the course of a few months.
03 – Get help. Ask a supportive friend or loved one to hold you accountable, start a vegetable eating contest at work, start working with a dietitian or health coach (check out our Health Coaching page to learn more about working with us).
