6 easy ways to add more fresh produce to every meal

Sadly, potato chips and chocolate-covered raisins don't count as a serving of veggies or pack the same nutrient-filled punch. The good news? It's a breeze to incorporate more healthy produce into each meal to help offset bad eating habits. Here are 6 easy ways.

It's a simple rule to understand and apply:

Always have fruits and/or veggies of two different colours on your plate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

As examples, you could:

• Start breakfast with a berry/citrus salad or have red and black berries with yogurt.
• Have red and orange bell peppers on your lunchtime salad.
• Heap your dinner plate with purple-skinned eggplant and yellow winter squash.

Why is this sensible?

• You'll automatically have two servings of produce.
• They'll flood your body with a wider variety of beneficial antioxidants and other phytochemicals.
• Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables tend to contain more nutrients than their less colourful versions. For example, nutrition experts say that red-leafed lettuce has up to three times more antioxidants than green-leaf lettuce.

It's the simplest way to get more vegetables into your diet. At first, it'll seem odd to have your lunch or dinner plate so full of green, but in time it will be a welcome habit.

• Make sure you haven't "de-healthed" your vegetables with excessive butter, oil or fat otherwise your calorie count will surge. Also, don't double up on high-starch vegetables like corn and potatoes, since they're higher in calories.

According to Canada's Food Guide,  which is produced by Health Canada, a medium-size fruit or half-cup of fresh, frozen or canned veggies constitutes roughly one serving. What's more, they recommend the average adult should eat between about eight to 10 servings of fruit and veggies per day.

That's at least one serving – and if you fill your bowl with your favourite salad veggies, you'll start the meal with a smile.

• Be choosy. If you dislike iceberg lettuce, try a beautiful salad green mix or baby spinach.
• Add juicy produce like tomatoes, sliced red bell peppers, or even strawberries or raspberries.
• For more flavour, sprinkle chopped fresh herbs such as basil and cilantro on top.
• Drizzle with 5 ml (1 tsp.) each of olive oil and lemon juice.

Choose a vegetable that's not fried or served in a creamy or oil-based sauce. If nothing fits that description, ask for a green salad instead.

• Most restaurants will be happy to accommodate your request. Ask for the dressing on the side so you can control how much you put on.

Instead of a chocolate bar or other sugary snacks to satisfy your afternoon hunger pangs,  try a glass of low-sodium, low-sugar vegetable juice. It counts as a full serving. What's more, tomato-based juices are also high in the antioxidant lycopene. Plus, when slightly chilled, are refreshing and delicious.

• If you dislike vegetable juice (not everyone's a fan), have pieces of fresh fruit on hand and ice cold water to wash it down. Add a handful of peanuts to provide protein and you're good to go for a few more hours.
• Although fruit is also sweet, like chocolate, it has the benefit of fibre and other nutrients lacking in candy.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, celery, radishes, broccoli and bell peppers are just a few examples of vegetables that are outstanding to eat raw. Try to get in the habit of a daily raw-vegetable snack — if you eat them unadorned, you can eat as many as you wish!

• Put out a plate of raw vegetables at every dinner. You and your loved ones will naturally nibble them throughout the meal.

Whether or not you already eat fruits and veggies as recommended by Canada's Health Guide – and most Canadians don't – there are ways to squeeze in a few more servings that are so easy they'll soon become second nature.