Hancock County Cooperative Extension Nutritional Assistant (NEP) was asked to join Hope House, a public housing for women, to teach Healthy Choices for Everybody.  The ladies are on the path to better their eating habits.  But first we needed to see where they stood on their habits with the entry survey.

One part that stood out at the beginning, was that only 25% of the ladies meet the recommendations for the daily in take of fruits. Myplate.gov recommends that adults eat 1.5-2 cups of fruits every day, while making sure we eat a variety. It is said to focus on whole fruits.

The NEP assistant taught the Healthy Choices fruit lesson, they discussed eating fresh, canned, cooked, or pureed fruits.  The main detail was, just eat them! But why? Fruits are so important to our daily diet, fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and folate.

So then, what can we do to add more into our diets? The best thing about fruits is they are an easy to grab on the go snack, toss into a bag and take with you to eat. Another way to get them into our meal plan, is a smoothie. Smoothies are a great way to get not only fruits but also veggies. So many different types can be put into the mixed for a yummy, but very nutritious drink! Not to mention dairy that can be added!

Once the ladies took the exit survey, 100% meet the recommendation of eating more fruits more often in the day.