How can I eat more vegetables?
We know, we know. You’ve heard it a million times before. Have more vegetables! Get your 5-a-day! Eat the rainbow! It’s almost like a mantra for good nutrition. But of all the dietary recommendations, increasing your veggie intake really is the most robust and is backed by the largest body of evidence (nerd speak for ‘proof’). Not only can vegetables fill you up without adding huge amounts of kilojoules to your diet, but the myriad of nutrients they contain are beneficial for everything from heart disease to immunity (see our previous article on ‘Can Nutrition Strengthen Your Immune System?’ for more on this).
An exciting area of research is the potential role of vegetables in preventing cancer (1). Think broccoli, cauliflower, kale, bok choy, cabbage and their super power in blocking the growth of rogue cancerous cells in the body. Sounds too good to be true? Well, get ready for a technical crash course (but feel free to skip right to the next paragraph if your eyes start glazing over).
Glucosinolates are a group of sulfur-containing compounds that are present in cruciferous vegetables, and many laboratory studies have examined the protective actions that occur when glucosinolates are broken down during digestion into sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol. Both of these inhibit inflammation, support anti-oxidation, upregulate detoxification enzymes, and modulate cancer signaling pathways (2). All of which create an unwelcome environment for cancer cells to grow. What’s more, large cohort studies have found that people who have a high intake of cruciferous vegetables (that’s more than 5 serves a week) had lower risks of colon and lung cancers (3,4).
OK, but that’s enough scientific mumble-jumble for now! What you really need to know is how to get more of these cancer fighters into you, and here are our top ten tips:
Serve a fresh side salad with every main meal
Fill half your dinner plate with vegetables
Use more vegetables in cooking. Sneak grated carrot/zucchini to mince sauces, meatloaves and burgers – the kids will never know!
Add vegetables in baking. Grated beetroot works a treat in chocolate cakes, and who doesn’t love a moist carrot cake?
Eat vegetables more often throughout the day. Try snacking on cucumber sticks with tzatziki, carrot batons with hummus, celery boats with nut butter. Or just grab a handful of sweet cherry tomatoes, baby cukes, mini capsicums or spicy radishes to munch on.
Use lettuce cups as wraps instead of bread for holding delicious fillings like chilli con carne or san choy bau.
Blitz up some vegetables into your breakfast or post-workout smoothie.
Spiralise zucchini to make zoodles, and use in place of spaghetti.
Get inventive with beans and legumes! Have you tried mashed cannellini beans (it really is like your fav mashed potato), making felafels with chickpeas, or using firm tofu in stirfries?
Be adventurous! Give cauliflower ‘rice’ a go, or pasta made with pulses, experiment with the many varieties of seaweed or just get out there and taste a new exotic vegetable that you’ve never tried before!
References
Fuentes, F et al. Curr Phar Rep, 2015. 1(3):179-196
Wong, CP et al. PLoS One, 2014. 9(1):e86787
Voorrips, LE et al. Am J Epi, 2000. 152(11);1081-1092
Jade Petitat is a Power Living certified yoga teacher, who combines traditional yogic philosophy with a modern-day approach to give participants a challenging, yet nurturing practice. When she is not on her mat, Jade works as an Accredited Practising Dietitian and is mum to a sweet little yogini.
