Fruits and veggies are good for you. We all know it. But eating them can be a challenge.

During Fruits & Veggies, More Matters! Month, we celebrate these sweet, crunchy, stemmy, seedy foods that make our bodies stronger.

Fruits & veggies help by lowering your risk for:

• Heart disease
• Type 2 diabetes
• Some types of cancer
• Obesity
• High blood pressure

Making an effort to eat more fruits and veggies is half the battle.

Here’s some tips for building them into your day – whether you’re at home or at work:

At home:

• Buy them! It seems simple, but adding them to your shopping list is the first step.
• Try a new fruit or veggie each week to keep it interesting.
• Cut up fruits and veggies to make them easy finger-food.
• Try a low-fat dip to go with them.
• Make sure half your plate is made up of fruits and veggies.

At work or on-the-town:

• Pack fruits and veggies as a snack.
• Didn’t pack anything? Stop at a grocery store instead of the gas station. Many grocery stores have fruit and salad bars or cups of precut fruit and veggies. Even a bag of baby carrots will work!
• Getting a sandwich or a burger? Load up on veggies.
• Check the menu – many fast food places offer salads and fruit cups.
• At a restaurant, make sure that you choose a side of fruit and another side as a vegetable.