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After all of the feasting and snacking during the Christmas season, many people try to boost their health and fitness in the new year. Apart from hitting the gym and increasing your activity levels, another key way to improve your overall health is to eat a balanced and nutritious diet. In addition to cutting down on sugar, fat and salt, eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day is an essential component of this healthy diet. But in our world of junk food and sugary snacks, how can we increase our fruit and vegetable intake without being tempted to choose easy, less nutritious foods instead? Here are four simple ways to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet in the new year:

Learn more ways to cook vegetables:

Unfortunately, boiled and overcooked vegetables aren’t always very tasty, and if you are unsure about how to cook vegetables in a way that makes them more appealing, you may find it difficult to increase the amount of vegetables in your diet. Stir-frying, steaming and roasting are all great methods of cooking vegetables to enhance their flavour whilst also retaining their vital nutrients. A green bean recipe containing seasonings such as salt and garlic can be a great accompaniment to any dinner, and it’s also important to experiment with different flavours to see which vegetable recipes you really enjoy.

Learn how to make soup:

As well as being perfect for cold winter weather, soup can also be packed full of different vegetables - it can be the perfect way to reach your five a day. By combining lots of different ingredients, making soup may help you to disguise certain flavours that you don’t like, which can be a huge help if you dislike a lot of bitter tastes that are present in certain vegetables. 

Make smoothies:

Similar to soup, smoothies are a great way to combine lots of fruits and vegetables into one meal or snack, helping you to get multiple portions of your five a day in one go. Blending foods together can also be an advantage if you dislike certain food textures, which will help you to increase your fruit and vegetable intake in a more manageable way. Start replacing your sugary breakfast cereal with a nutritious smoothie to see how much of a difference this makes to your health!

Buy a fruit bowl:

The convenience of unhealthy, processed foods often makes them an easy choice for snacks throughout the day, which can have a negative impact on your health over time. Having a fruit bowl filled with a variety of tasty and appealing fruits could be a way to remind yourself to reach for healthy snacks rather than unhealthy ones if you’re feeling peckish between meals, and no longer buying those unhealthy snacks in the first place would be the next step in your health journey. 

With all of the points listed above, you could start to dramatically increase your fruit and vegetable intake and simultaneously decrease your consumption of unhealthy and processed foods. After the excess of the festive period, focusing on a balanced diet in the new year could be a fresh start and a great way to break old habits and create a healthy lifestyle for the future.

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