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How Our Family of 4 Eats 35 Pounds of Produce a Week
The exact plan I use to make it happen
I’m the kind of woman who has carried a box of produce into a classroom to teach kids about fruits and vegetables. I’ve held demonstrations at farms to show people how to use vegetables like kohlrabi and napa cabbage.
Deep in my bones, I feel that people should — and can — learn how to enjoy copious amounts of fruits and vegetables. It’s delicious. It’s healthy.
It’s also how I feed my family.
Serving a family of four 35 pounds of produce a week might seem like an outrageous proposition, but it’s not only doable. it’s how we should all be eating, regardless of the philosophy or eating style we subscribe to.
The U.S. Dietary guidelines created by the Department of Agriculture recommend that individuals eat a minimum of 1.5–2 cups of fruit and 2–2.5 cups of vegetables a day, depending on age and sex.
Though we are given these recommendations in volumetric measurements, each of the 5 servings is correlated with a weight of 80 grams, or a total of 400 grams per day. This is also the recommendation of the World Health Organization. Converted to the U.S. customary unit this means we should each be eating at least .88 pounds of produce a day.
