It is widely accepted that eating wide variety of fruits and vegetables results in better nutrient status*. This week, I started the challenge of eating 50 different varieties of foods in a week. In this isolation time, my grocery bill has doubled, preparing 3 meals a day for a family of five that includes two growing teenagers. I caught myself buying mostly the same veggies and fruits over and over and it occurred to me that it has been a while since I took stock of how many varieties of foods we actually ate in a week. Of course, shopping at major supermarkets make it more challenging as they have limited range of fruits and veggies, but if you have access to local market or green grocer, they tend to have more varieties.
I started with a pomegranate. Usually it is quite expensive, but Aldi was selling it for $2.50 (Australian grown!). The fact you have to get bit dirty to eat it makes it somehow inferior to fruits like banana and apple that you can just grab and eat. I use the after dinner fruit time to have this pomegranate with the family while we went around talking about what we were grateful for that day.
Next was Rhubarb, then Ruby Red Grapefruit, Persimmon, Kohlrabi, Dragonfruit, Okra, Papaya, Edamame. . .
Every time I went shopping, I picked up another thing that I hadn't bought for a while. I got kids to write down the names of fruits and veggies we were eating every day, this became like a fun game. On to week 3, we could complete the whole 50 foods in about 3 days. It has given me a new spark to cooking and to make sure my kids are exposed to wide ranges of flavours and textures.
Who is up for this challenge?
*Reports: Quantity and Variety of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Cancer Risk PMID: 15231448
