Get more serves of fruits into your day.

 Gimnazjum nr 1 im. Stefana Żeromskiego w Piekoszowie http://gimnazjum.zpopiekoszow.pl/

 More information How much fruit and vegetables should adults and children eat for good health? Age

AGE/YEARS 2-3 4-7 8-11 12-18 19+

Fruit (serves per day) 1 1-2 1-2 3-4 2 or more

Vegetables (serves per day) 2 2-4 3-5 5-9 5 or more

Data for community education concerning children obesity and eating habits is brought from WHO website. For more information about European Fruit Musem Project visit the information blog in polish: http://comeniuspiekoszow.blogspot.com

and main project

website: http://www.europeanfruit museum.com/

THE MORE FRUIT YOU EAT, THE MORE HEALTHY YOU ARE

 Fresh fruit for fresh minds!

What’s a serve? One serve of FRUIT is 150 grams of fresh fruit or 1 medium piece (eg apple) or 2 small pieces (eg apricots) or 1 cup canned or chopped fruit.

European Youth don’t eat enough fruit. Most children want to eat more fruit and know that they are ‘good for you’. The fact is eating more fruit may be the single most important dietary change needed to improve health and reduce the risk of disease for you and your family.

What’s in it for you? For better health and to reduce the risk of disease, make it a habit to eat fruit every day. A life-time habit of eating fruit can help prevent:    

Cardiovascular disease Some forms of cancer Overweight and obesity Constipation.

They can also:    

Help children to grow and develop well Reduce infections by building a healthy immune system Reduce blood pressure and blood cholesterol level Improve control of diabetes

According to the survey conducted at school in Piekoszów as a part of work in European Fruit Museum Project, not many people in our school society pay enough attention to healthy eating habits. They claim they like different fruits, but they eat still the same: apples and bananas. They refuse numerous very healthy fruits like blackberries, grapefruits, cherries or oranges for their taste and acidity, but the real cause is that people do not have a chance to really get familiar with them. Many students are not used to bring fruit from home – there must be a lack of them or there is very little choice. In this matter – we call parents to collect more fruit and offer to their children. There is never too much fruit to eat, but too little will bring unpleasant consequences – obesity and low immunity. Students who go for lunch to the school canteen are offered fruits very often, but others go the vending machine (- there are no fruits) or to the school bufet (there are only bananas). The advice is to taste more fruits more often – this will help us get more vitamins and fuel our bodies with necessary ingredients. What is of the greatest importance, our school teachers proved in the survey that they have very good eating habits, they really prefer fruit and avoid fast food. Then, here is only one step to learn healthy eating – take example from our teachers!

The school survey results go with the statements of World Health Organization, telling that Polish students are in the group of the most overweigt children in Europe.

How to get more serves of fruit into your day. All you need to do is simply swap more fruit for less healthy foods* into mealsand snacks.

• Try fruit with breakfast cereal or yoghurt. • Swap snacking on chips and biscuits for fresh fruit. • Blend soft fruit (eg bananas, strawberries) with low fat milk, yoghurt and ice for a fruit smoothie. • Add chopped or sliced fruit to savoury salads. • Serve fresh or canned fruit for dessert by itself or with reduced fat custard or yoghurt. *Less healthy foods are those high in fat, salt and sugar like chips, fried food, chocolates and soft drinks.