Two Plus Three Every Day - How can I modify my current diet and increase fruit and vegetables intake? - Dietary Modifications for Adults

One of the biggest problems for adults nowadays is lacking of time to prepare their own food. Many working people often eat out, thus it is difficult to control exactly what they eat. The following are tips on how to modify your menu and increase your fruit and vegetables intake when you dine out.

	Typical Menus	Suggested Modifications	Notes from Dietitian
Breakfast	Toast with sweetened condensed milk and butter	Egg salad sandwich with tomato and sweet corn (0.5 serving of vegetables)	Adding vegetables ingredients to your sandwich every day can make a big difference to your overall vegetables intake. They are also much lower in fat than butter and condensed milk.
Breakfast	Hot coffee	Skimmed milk	Many adults tend to forget the milk and its alternatives and their calcium needs. Thus we recommend starting your day with a glass of skimmed milk.
Lunch	Cream soup	Borsch (0.5 serving of vegetables)	Vegetable soups can help increase our vegetables intake without adding too much fat and energy to our diet as cream soups do.
	Rice with fried pork chop	Rice with pork chop and onion (0.5 serving of vegetables)	Many restaurants offer meats that are over-portioned. Order dishes that come with vegetables and meat and avoid deep-fried meat to prevent excessive intake of fat.
	Coke with lemon	Water with lemon (with little or no added sugar)	Soft drinks are extremely high in sugar. Replacing them with lemon water can greatly reduce your energy intake and thus preventing weight gain.
Tea Break	Coffee	1 medium-sized fruit (1 serving of fruit)	Consuming fresh fruit as a nutritious refreshment.
Dinner	Rice with fried spareribs	Rice with chicken and celery (0.5 serving of vegetables)	Adding a plate of vegetables to dinner can help meet our daily need of vegetables intake as well as preventing us from over-eating. Remember, however, to avoid using too much condiments that are high in salt, such as soy sauce and oyster sauce. Choose vegetables dishes which is flavoured by natural ingredients such as garlic, chilli pepper and spices.
	Stir-fried water spinach with fermented soybean curd (1 serving of vegetables)	Stir-fried water spinach with minced garlic and chilli pepper (1 serving of vegetables)
	Soft drink	Tea
Snack	Baked coconut milk pudding with tapioca and sweetened lotus seed paste	Papaya, snow ear and logan flesh sweet soup (no added sugar) (1 serving of fruit)	Papaya and snow ear can increase dietary fibre intake; Logan flesh is sweet in taste, no added sugar is required.
Total	0 serving of fruit 1 serving of vegetables	2 servings of fruit 3 servings of vegetables	If you are too busy to make a fruit cuts or salad, you can grasp every opportunity to incorporate fruit and vegetables into your dish such as choosing borsch instead of cream soup. In this way, you can easily increase your fruit and vegetables intake.

Remarks: The above menus are designed to facilitate fruit and vegetables consumption as part of a balanced diet and may not represent your specific nutritional and energy needs. You may visit the "Healthy Eating Food Pyramid" for general dietary guidelines of different age groups. For individualised diet planning, please seek advice from dietitian.