Happiness Experiment 22: Eating your Recommended Servings of Fruits and Vegetables

Now, to start off with, let’s get the obvious question out of the way.

I’m not disputing that eating your daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables is a good thing or a bad thing. Scientific studies have clearly shown that the long-term benefits towards health and energy are clear.

However, what are the short-term benefits?

For my age and gender, the Canada Food Guide recommends 7-10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

If I’m honest and realistic, I probably eat 3-4 servings of fruit and vegetables on average per day. That’s a long way from 7-10.

So, the question here is, if I increase my consumption up to the number of recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, will I feel a difference?

Based on the end of the previous week’s experiment, I know what my weight is starting the experiment. I’m feeling run down and wiped out, so any changes in energy levels will be evident pretty quickly.

Eating your Recommended Fruits and Vegetable Servings – Day 1

My menu for today was pretty aggressive.

It starts with a smoothie: 1 banana, 1 cup of mixed berries, 1 cup of orange juice, and a handful of kale as well. I didn’t drink all of that today, but it contains 5 servings of fruit, and I drank at least 3/5 today. So, I start with 3 servings of fruits and vegetables.

Add in 2 cups of baked kale chips, so that’s 2 servings of vegetables.

Then I snacked on 2 sliced apples today, adding 2 more servings of fruit and bringing me to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables in total.

I also drank a cup of pomegranate and blueberry juice today, so that brings me to 9 servings.

Then, for dinner, I diced up a cup of spinach to put on the pizza I cooked.

Add in a healthy helping of spinach, and my total for the day is 9.5 servings of fruits and vegetables today.

So far, it’s a great start to an interesting experiment!