MyPlate – Fill Half Your Plate With
Fruits & Vegetables
Add Avocados to Your Plate as Part of a Balanced Diet
MyPlate and Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 emphasize choosing nutrient-dense foods from each food group as the best approach to meeting nutrient needs within calorie recommendations. MyPlate is an easy to understand visual representation that illustrates the quantity of the key food groups that should be consumed as specified in the Dietary Guidelines.
Did you know? While many consumers think of avocados as a vegetable, an avocado is actually a nutrient-dense fruit. One-fifth of a medium avocado (1 ounce) has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients to your diet.
Make half your plate fruit and vegetables. MyPlate encourages a variety of fruits and vegetables, because they contain a number of essential nutrients, are associated with reduced risk of many chronic diseases and, when prepared without added fats or sugars, are relatively low in calories.1 Eating California Avocados, a nutrient-dense fruit, every day can help Americans meet their recommended daily servings of fruits.
Focus on Fruits. The versatility of California Avocados makes it simple, easy and delicious to enjoy this fruit as part of balanced meals and sensible snacks to help meet the MyPlate recommendations of filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables.
Try our new Avocado and Melon Breakfast Smoothie.
This drink is a delightful concoction of green fruit plus fat-free dairy. With convenience built in, this refreshing smoothie can be made a day ahead. Keeps well in the refrigerator up to 24 hours.
For more information about MyPlate and how to build healthy eating patterns, visit choosemyplate.gov
For more fruit and vegetable nutrition information and ideas for including fruits and vegetables in all your meals, visit fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org
MyPlate Make Over Challenge
Enter the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters MyPlate Makeover Challenge and show us how you are making your family healthier by following the new USDA Dietary Guidelines. You will automatically be entered to win a free $100 grocery gift card and receive a coupon or fruit and vegetable related. Check out the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters website for complete details.
Tips From Our Registered Dietitians
Try these tips from our Registered Dietitians on how to include Fresh California Avocados in your daily meals to help meet the MyPlate recommendations of making half of your plate fruits and vegetables:
Add them to your breakfast
Add fresh avocado to your breakfast for a dose of healthy fats, nearly 20 essential nutrients and delicious flavor! Blend into a smoothie, scramble into eggs or spread on top of a whole grain bagel to provide a serving of fruit to your breakfast.
Add them to your sandwich
Thinly slice or mash 1/5 of an avocado and add to your favorite sandwich or whole grain wrap to add a serving of fruit and a creamy richness to your lunch.
Nutrient-dense dessert
Try adding avocados to your dessert for a sweet, nutrient-dense ending to your meal. .
Less butter
Replace half the fat in your favorite baked dessert with equal amounts of fresh avocado and you will increase your fruit intake, while reducing your fat, calorie and sodium intake.
The amount of fruit you need each day varies based on age, gendr and level of physical activity. To learn more about individual daily recommendations, click here.
MyPlate and California Avocado Recipes
Here are just a few recipes to show how easy and delicious it can be to add nutrient-dense California Avocados to your plate as part of a balanced eating pattern and help meet food group recommendations for fruit and vegetables. For full nutrition information for each recipe please click on the link below.
California Hass Family Guacamole
California Guacamole made by Elizabeth Hass, just the way Rudolph Hass, owner of the original Hass Avocado tree, loved it. Simple, tasty and full of California Avocados.
Fresh California Avocado and Turkey Sandwich
Stacked right, the rich nutty flavor, silky smooth texture, and lush color of Fresh California Avocados turn an ordinary turkey sandwich into a sensual experience.
Spinach Salad with Pan-Seared Salmon, Oranges, Red Onion, and Avocado
Copper River salmon provides an excellent pairing to creamy California Avocados. The bold flavors and great textures in this salad make it a perfect meal year-round.
Mediterranean Pasta with California Avocado
Cara Mia Marinated Artichoke Hearts, STAR Extra Virgin Olive Oil and hand-grown California Avocados team up to create a flavorful pasta salad with a Mediterranean flair. Serve up this dish at your end-of-summer bash and your guests are certain to come back for seconds.
Avocanana Bread
Classic banana bread that uses creamy Fresh California Avocado to replace shortening. The result is very moist and great for breakfast, snacks, tea time or dessert.
Reference:
1 - U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. 7th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 2010.
