2.72 USDA – Vegetables
The USDA Food Plan recommends 2.5 cups of vegetables daily, which is 5 servings when following a 2000 calorie diet. Eating 2.5 cups of vegetables per day comes out to 17.5 cups per week. Furthermore, their recommendations are broken down into type of vegetables to be sure there is a variety. Here is the weekly amount of each vegetable type that they recommend:
- Dark green veggies (1.5 cups per week)
- Red and orange veggies (5.5 cups/week)
- Beans and peas (1.5 cups/week)
- Starchy veggies (5 cups/week)
- Other veggies (4 cups/week)
There is no need to limit your vegetable consumption at all. The general consensus is the more vegetables you eat (including potatoes) the better. Remember vegetables are high in fiber, protein and micronutrients. They fill you up while not packing in a high number of calories. Be careful not to prepare them with oils or butter that will increase not only the fat content, but more importantly the calorie density.
Here is a summary from the USDA of the recommendations for vegetable consumption and what Americans actually eat:
