The Whole Truth About Fruits and Vegetables!

Whole vegetables and fruits are an essential part of a healthy diet and offer many nutritional benefits over their liquid counterparts, which often contain added sugar and salt.

Here are a few more reasons you should serve them instead of juice for breakfast: 

• They contain fibre: Fibre plays an important role in naturally controlling your appetite. Most of the fibre in a vegetable or fruit is found in its peel and pulp. When these are removed, as they are with juice, the benefits of the fibre are lost.  

• They are chock-full of vitamins and minerals: Whole vegetables and fruits are complex foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals from root to stalk. By eating all the edible parts, you’ll be getting the most out of every nutrient.  
• The sugar and salt they contain are naturally balanced: Think of the last time you squeezed an orange. How much juice did you get out of it? Barely enough to fill the bottom of a glass, right? So you can imagine how many it would take for a full serving! The result is very high in sugar (the same sugar content as a soft drink!) and does not make you feel full. What’s more, many commercial fruit juices contain added sugar, and many vegetable juices contain salt, which is a shame because vegetables and fruits in their natural state are already bursting with flavour.  

All in all, there really is no comparison between whole vegetables and fruits and juice, be it store-bought or freshly pressed. No matter how you serve whole vegetables and fruit — fresh, frozen, canned, stewed or blended — be sure to work as many of them as you can into your breakfast menu. They are as versatile as they are colourful, making the first meal of the day appealing to the eye as well as the taste buds. Use them to introduce your students to a world of flavours and textures.  

Visit our Recipes section for more tricks and information!