Since November is 5+ a Day month, it's a good time for us to put this message into practice.

This international programme encourages everyone to eat five or more serves of fruit and vegetables every day - specifically, three or more servings of vegetables and two or more servings of fruit. A serving is about a handful and is different for everyone. A child- sized serving will be smaller than an adult's.

Start children on a wide variety of fruit and vegetables from a young age. The earlier they are exposed to different flavours, the more likely they will be to develop healthy habits. Chopping up fruit and vegetables to bite-sized pieces helps. A whole unpeeled orange can prove challenging for little ones.

Providing a good role model is important. If you eat fruit and vegetables, your children are more likely to follow your lead. Get children involved with making meals, from shopping for fruit and vegetables to washing and cutting them in the kitchen.

The nutrients that make fruit and vegetables colourful are not just all about good looks: they provide health benefits. Our bodies need a range of vitamins and minerals to work properly every day. Fruit and vegetables also contain antioxidants and photochemicals (pronounced fight-o-chemicals) to protect against the effects of aging, cancer and other diseases. No one fruit or vegetable has all these nutrients, so we need to eat from the colour groups every day - red, yellow/orange, brown/white, green and blue/ purple.

Get your 5+ a day by including fruit and vegetables in meals and snacks. It is not as expensive as you might think. You can get your recommended servings for as little as $2 per day. The trick is to shop in season, use frozen vegetables or tinned fruit (choose in juice rather than syrup). This can be a convenient and economical way of increasing variety. Try these ideas to spread fruit and veges across the day:

Breakfast: slice fruit over cereal; make fruit smoothies; cook mushrooms or tomatoes to put on toast; or add chopped vegetables to scrambled eggs.

Lunch: make your own wraps, sandwiches and subs using a combination of sliced cucumber, lettuce, sprouts or carrots and add tinned tuna or shredded chicken; mix chopped fruit or fruit salad with low-fat yoghurt; heat up some tinned vegetable soup or make your own from potato, carrot, celery and leeks.

Dinner: make your own pizza by piling tomato, onion, mushroom and capsicums on to pita breads with tomato sauce. Make burger patties and add lettuce, pineapple, tomato, beetroot and grated carrot. Stuff baked potatoes or kumara with diced tomato, corn, courgette or spring onion.

Snacks: serve carrot or celery sticks with hummus; cherry tomatoes on crackers with cheese; orange segments or sliced apple.

More tips and recipes can be found on the following websites: www.5aday.co.nz and www.vegetables.co.nz .

* Content supplied Michelle Butler, New Zealand Registered Dietitian.