Therefore fruit snacks are a much better idea than confectionary bars, biscuits and buns. Eating whole fruits and vegetables also provides fibre to help fill you up. This feeling of fullness may help you not to nibble at other higher calorie foods during the day.

Tips

• Try sweeter vegetables like garden peas, sugar snap peas, red peppers, baby carrots and sweet corn.
• Try some raw vegetables if you don’t like them cooked, for example salad vegetables like cucumber, cherry tomatoes and baby sweet corn.
• Snack smart- dip sticks of red and green peppers, carrot, cucumber and celery into hummus.
• Try pureed vegetables in a soup or sauce that you do like – a little broccoli pureed into soup.
• Be adventurous – it pays off!

• Add some berries or a chopped banana to your breakfast cereal (a large handful is one serving).
• Enjoy a breakfast smoothie with 150 ml of juice and 80g of fruit, ice and a low fat yoghurt (counts as two servings of fruit).
• Eat melon as a starter (one large slice makes a portion).
• Drink a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice with a meal (150ml is one serving). The vitamin C in the juice will help you absorb iron from your meal.
• Eat a fresh fruit salad medley after your evening meal (one dessert bowl counts as a serving).
• Cooked fruit can count towards your five portions of fruit and veg, whether it is baked, poached or stewed. A baked apple, poached pear, or three heaped tablespoons of stewed fruit would count as a portion.
• Set fruit in jelly – children love it. Fresh, frozen and tinned fruit all count nutritionally – however fresh tastes best! Try to use reduced-sugar jellies if you enjoy this regularly.

Because we only need small amounts of vitamins and minerals each day, they can generally be obtained by eating a balanced diet. So always think ‘food first’! Generally, there is not a need to take additional vitamin supplements unless your doctor has recommended them. For example, you may need an iron supplement if you have iron deficiency anaemia, or vitamin B12 if you are a vegetarian. It seems that vitamins and minerals found in foods are generally utilised by the body more effectively than synthetic forms found in pills.

Here are some ways to ensure that the food you cook retains the vitamins and minerals present in the ingredients they use:

• Buy locally grown produce if you can - fruit and vegetables that travel long distances may have been harvested before they are ripe and have had time to develop their full quota of vitamins. Their nutritional value may be lost during the journey to the supermarket shelves.
• Prepare fruit and vegetables as close to eating or cooking them as possible as they can begin to lose some nutrients as soon as they are chopped.
• Don’t peel fruit and vegetables where possible – wash them well instead?
• Steam vegetables or boil using tiny amounts of water as nutrients can be lost through heat and water.
• Save the cooking water from vegetables for using in soups, gravy and sauces.

However a little natural sugar, particularly in a food that provides other important nutrients, is allowed in a healthy balanced diet.

Fruit is naturally low in fat and calories and even though it contains natural sugar, it also has essential nutrients and a certain amount of fibre which is useful for overall health.

Please consult with your doctor or health professional for tailored advice.

Fruits and vegetables can be fresh, frozen, dried or tinned. But fresh is best and there’s no beating the taste of freshly prepared vegetables!

Try some vegetables from each of the groups below during the week:

• Dark-green vegetables (broccoli, spinach, kale).
• Orange vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes).
• Salad vegetables (peppers, onions, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes and lettuce)
• Fresh fruits (apples, bananas, pears, grapes, plums, peaches).
• Citrus fruits (oranges, Satsuma’s, grapefruits, lemons, limes).
• Berries (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries).

That is because you don’t get the same nutritional benefits from juice as you get from the whole fruit. When juice is extracted from the whole fruit, it reduces the fibre content so you are better to eat the whole fruit instead, where possible.

Variety is one of the keys to a healthy balanced diet, and this applies to the fruit and vegetable group also. The more diversity, the better, because different fruit and veg contain different nutrients. Enjoying assorted fruits and vegetables regularly, ensure a wide complement of vitamins and minerals, a range of colours, flavours and textures. They can also help make food more interesting and enjoyable.

• They will be even better value if they are grown locally and have not far to be transported.
• Stretch out fresh fruit in desserts and cereals, to make them go further - with some less expensive frozen berries or some dried fruits, like sultanas, raisins, and apricots.
• Watch out for special offers in the fruit and veg sections of retailers.
• Buy bigger better value family packs of fruit and vegetables. Then split the cost and produce with friends or neighbours.

Studies show that people who eat a diet containing at least five servings of a variety of different fruit and vegetables a day have a lower risk for developing certain diseases.

Of course it’s always good practice to wash fruit and vegetables before you eat them for a number of reasons. That way you can ensure they are clean, and any dirt or germs on the outside are removed. Some vegetables such as carrots sometimes need scraping or peeling to remove soil.

Change the texture so that they don’t recognise them by:

• Pureeing vegetables and blending them into a tomato sauce for pasta.
• Blitzing some cooked vegetables to make a delicious smooth homemade vegetable soup.
• Mashing vegetables really finely into a food they do like, such as potato.

Or you can offer raw vegetables:

• Chop carrots, peppers, celery and cucumbers into stick shapes for dipping into hummus.
• Serve sweet cherry tomatoes and small cubes of cheese on cocktail sticks as a snack.
• Let them have fun popping peas from their pods and eating them raw.