How many cups of vegetables do you eat in a day?

Probably 2 in one week lol.

I’m trying to gain weight. I eat an average of one veggie serving and one fruit per meal. I follow a “balanced” diet, meaning my meals include one protein, a huge lump of carbs, and a veggie. Fruit is dessert, and I drink milk when I have a snack and with a protein shake. Luckily, I don’t have any medical conditions.
For the types of veggies, I almost always have green veggies (broccoli, lettuce, parsley, scallions, and/or green beans, etc.) in my fridge. In fact the only non-green veggies I usually have are carrots and tomatoes. For fruits, I have an orange almost once a day. Other than that I buy all sorts of different things such as grapes, berries, pears, whatever gets the best deal at the market.

I’m not a big vegetable lover unless they are really well prepared. I’ve been trying to lose a few pounds and up my healthy food consumption. What works well for me in terms of adding veggies is to get a few days worth of salad from the salad bar. I definitely pick to get a variety of color and dark, leafy greens. I often eat that alone or with a little macaroni salad or a dolmada for lunch; sometimes as a side with dinner. I have upped my fruit consumption too mainly by having berries, banana and walnuts with yogurt as my breakfast.

I don’t have any particular diet restrictions but I try to limit my meat consumption and just lately am working on cutting down on carbs and sweets – both of which are my downfall.

I am trying to identify food sensitivities, so I eat mostly meat and vegetables. I have a cup of veggies (plus healthy fat and maybe low-sugar fruit, like berries or lemon) in a smoothie for breakfast. I probably eat at least 2 cups of veggies (plus meat) with lunch and 2–3 cups (plus meat) with dinner. So I eat 5–6 cups of veggies a day… at least.

Although some days it seems like too much chewing and I’ll skimp for a day.

I used to eat a lot of fruit and have worked on switching to veggies instead. I could eat fruit all day every day… but I can really feel swings in my blood sugar and recently fell down the stairs after (almost?) passing out on the basement landing.

An easy six cups a day most days, almost always a minimum of four.

I eat four cups worth of salad for lunch everyday, plus a couple of cups of veggies with dinner. And I will eat four or five stalks of celery with organic almond butter as a snack.

Do barley and hops count as vegetables? If they do I am getting an amazing amount of nutrition each and every day.

Zero.

I wouldn’t begin to know how to calculate such a thing. Salads appear almost daily. I’ve had a habit since the kids were little of hauling a ziplock bag of broccoli spears around with me on the road. I have noticed that there’s lots of asparagus involved with dinners at home these days. How many spears to make a cup?

8 – 10 stalks of asparagus per cup

Um….maybe a cup ever other day (I’m counting refried beans as a veggie, and I eat those a lot.)
Oh oh! I have some asparagus! Maybe it’s time to eat it!

I try to keep the rabbit food to a bare minimum.

Maybe an average of 10 a week.

I try to have veggies with at least 2 meals a day. Fruit once or twice, too.
I try to eat healthy and get fiber & soluble fiber each day. Not a specific diet – but I use MyFitnessPal to try to check that I’m getting enough protein and not too much sugar and not way overeating my calories based on my activity level for that day.

Oh, and I lost over 70lbs over a year ago and I’ve just been maintaining my weight since then.. so not really trying to gain or lose weight. Just trying to stay within a healthy range that lets me stay in my size 2 clothes.

Probably 4 to 5 per day, especially in summer. I love farmers markets.

I eat a salad with darkish greens about 3 times a week. I lose weight and I believe I am healthier if I eat them more often, but the raw veggies are hard on my digestive track. It’s more than a cup in the salad, it’s hard to measure that. I would say the salad has 2–3 cups of greens.

Outside of the salads, almost every day I have about a ¾ to 2 cups of cooked vegetables a day. It varies. I grew up with the four food group idea, so I almost always feel like every meal should have some vegetables. Some people don’t count ice berg lettuce or corn as vegetables, there are probably other foods like that.

For health reasons I think I should eat more vegetables than I do, especially because I think I should eat fewer animal foods. Health regarding heart disease and low iron specifically.

A better question would be, “What percentage of your daily food intake is vegetable?

Seems to me that responders are under-reporting the amount of chips they eat.

Vegetables are probably 65%.
Grains 25%.
Nuts 7%.

@ibstubro Valid point. Although, I think the percentage idea on food labels was a bad and ineffective idea.

I don’t know how much, but I do eat vegetables every day now that I’m on a modified diabetic diet, though I’m not diabetic. I love salads, spinach, beans, corn, and virtually every other type of cooked veggie except peas. I also eat some type of fresh fruit each day like melon or berries.

Not exactly sure how many cups of vegetables per day, but I probably eat more vegetables percentage wise than most people.

I eat about ⅓ of the amount of food that I did a year ago. I simply got into some really good habits, regarding eating and exercise about 8 months ago and I lost 30 pounds. I was 140 and am down to 110 at 5’4”. I do a 20 minute workout routine every day that works my gluts, abs, biceps, triceps, calves, thighs, latimus dorsi, and pecs.

I don’t drink alcohol and I’ve cut down on the cheese by about 90%, I almost never eat cake/pie/cookies/icecream. I don’t have cravings and I don’t miss the amount of food I was eating, it was simply that I ate way too much food before.

I have added green tea to my routine. I drink tea every day, at least 2 large glasses. I’ve always drank black tea.

So what do I eat? A lot of beans, especially pinto beans in burritos. Homemade pickled vegetables (no salt, just rice vinegar and garlic) which might on any given day include peppers, beets, carrots, cabbage or cauliflower. I usually make one of two homemade salads each week. This week it was raw kale salad with tahini and maple syrup and cabbage slaw with garlic and miso. I also tend to add raw veggies to any meal and eat them with hummus or Vegenaise or fat free Greek plain yogurt. When I eat bread or tortillas or burger buns, I almost always eat 100% whole grain. I like to make make homemade soup and try to make very low fat soups with veggies, beans, whole grains, or mushrooms, no cream. I eat peanut butter sandwiches about twice a week, about one egg per week, and I like to make marinated portobello mushroom sandwiches. If I eat pizza, which is about 80% less than I used to, it will be plain cheese, but then I’ll load it up with mushrooms, broccoli and jalapenos, and instead of eating a whole pizza, I’ll eat 1 or 2 slices, depending upon the size of the pizza. I even cut individual sized pizzas in half. I also like vegetarian sushi.

I do occasionally eat some of the fake meat products like This and This and These

If I have a snack I usually eat a small amount of nuts and/or dried cranberries, or some dried unsweetened coconut chips. I also like Rye Crisp crackers with a little bit of This spread on them. I eat quite a few dried edamame too. I pretty much cut out eating chips, except for the ones made from whole grains. I just found These at Trader Joe’s which I’ll either eat some plain, or with some guacamole, or salsa.

I still eat cheese, but not nearly as much as I did before. If I make a quesadilla, I only put a small amount of cheese on the tortilla and then load it up with broccoli or cauliflower or cabbage and lots of salsa and maybe a dollop of guacamole or fat free Greek yogurt.

Whenever I go out to eat, I always bring a cooler along. Before I even eat my meal, I cut it in half or by thirds and only eat part of it and take the rest home with me. Before, I would eat the whole enchilada, quite literally.

So glad to hear about folks changing their eating habits, rather than going on diets!

I eat quite a lot of veggies but can miss a few days here and there. Case in point, the other day when I had oatmeal for breakfast, then take out mexican and that was about it. haha
I make veggie chili and spaghetti sauce and soups often, I love squash and cabbage and saute yellow squash and zucchini in a bit of lite butter, italian seasonings and S&P Delicious!
I also dice it up with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and olives and toss it in a little marinaded sald with balsamic or red wine vinegarette.

My favorite, lettuce-less salad.
I make a baked cabbage, a killer cole slaw and also just love raw cabbage wedges dipped in miracle whip, the lazy womens cole slaw. haha
I make a 15 bean soup with tomatoes, onions, and smoked paprika and a delicious split pea with carrots, onions and celery. I also love celely stuffed with tuna salad and PB, not together. lol I eat baby carrots either diced with a little vinagarette dressing or dipped in a bit of lite ranch.

One of my favorite meals, had it last night, is my marinated tomato, cukes, squash and olive salad with a baked potato with a little bit of lite ranch dressing drizzled on. To die for.
I baked several extra white taters last night so I can have a repeat for lunch or dinner today.
We have a dozen varieties of tomato in our garden right now, along with squash, onions, pumpkins and cucumbers. I could also live on tomato sandwiches, lightly toasted bread, a little mayo, S&P. I can’t wait for tomato sandwiches in another couple months.

I just bought the 1st watermelon of the year too, waiting to cut it and hoping it;s not a dud.
I also could live on watermelon, cantaloupe, cherries, strawberries and apricots, oh the fruits of summer, can’t wait.
I make a quickie little fruit salad with diced cantaloupe, red grapes and sliced kiwis, so good!

@ibstubro I’m not sure why you think the percentage is a better question. I am literally interested in the quantity of vegetable consumption (I wasn’t including beans, but I can understand why some would… so I didn’t fuss).

Plus, percentages get confounded by the denominator. Are you talking the percentage of calories? Volume? Weight?

I know some vegetarians who eat mostly processed foods and don’t consume many fresh vegetables (or non-fresh, for that matter). I also know many people who think of one combined food category of fruit/vegetable… but I am concerned about the excess blood sugar effects of high fruit consumption. I have changed my habits in the past year and eat several cups of vegetables in a day. So I asked.

Oh @Coloma you are a woman after my own heart. I just finished a strawberry/raspberry “salad” with my sriracha chicken lunch. Thanks for the yummy idea of the baked potato with marinated goodies. I also love lettuce-less salads. That’s a usual lunch-side for me.