—Opal Ruff

Thanks for your great question — it's time for us to update those fruit and veggie recommendations!

As you may remember, a number of years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture came out with its slogan "Eat 5 To Stay Alive," meaning eat five servings of fruits and veggies per day. More recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention teamed up with other organizations, including the Produce for Better Health Foundation, to come up with more specific (and increased) recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake for Americans based on age, gender and activity level; the more active you are, the more you need.

And because serving sizes can be confusing and at times misleading, recommendations are now made in cups of produce per day rather than servings per day.

For example, a moderately active female age 19 to 50 needs about 5 cups of fruits and veggies each day. (Moderately active means you get 30 to 60 minutes of exercise per day.) It's usually recommended that you eat about two-thirds of this as vegetables and one-third as fruit, so that would mean roughly 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables.

Why more vegetables than fruit? Vegetables tend to be a little more packed with phytonutrients than fruits, and they contain less sugar.

In case you're wondering how to measure out cups of fruits and veggies, 1 cup usually refers to a measuring cup, just as you would use in cooking. But there are exceptions. In the vegetable group, 1 cup of raw or cooked vegetables, or 1 cup of 100 percent vegetable juice is considered a cup, but you actually need 2 cups of raw leafy greens for that amount.

In the fruit group, 1 cup of fruit or 100 percent fruit juice is a cup, while a half-cup of dried fruit is the equivalent of 1 cup for these purposes.

Eating more produce, and less high-fat and processed food, is strongly associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. In fact, the American Institute for Cancer Research estimates that if the only change we made in our diets was to eat the recommended amount of fruits and veggies, cancer rates would drop by about 20 percent. Focusing on fruits and veggies as the mainstay of your diet should also lead to reduced caloric intake and weight loss.

Here's a sample fruit-and-veggie menu for one day that provides more than 5 cups of produce. You'll see that it's not that hard to get your 5 cups in.

—Breakfast: A banana on your cereal plus a half-cup of low-sodium tomato juice.

—Midmorning snack: A half-cup of raisins or other dried fruit.

—Lunch: A large salad with 2 cups of raw spinach leaves, plus 1 cup of other veggies and fruits (tomatoes, carrots, shredded beets, cabbage, etc.).

—Dinner: 1 cup of cooked veggies, such as broccoli or cauliflower.

—Dessert: Half-cup of berries or cut-up fruit (plus a little dark chocolate, of course!).

Some other ways to look at this: Make plant food (this would include grains and legumes) the central part of your diet, and consider meat and dairy products as side dishes or condiments instead. Always include at least 1 fruit or veggie in any snacks that you eat. Fill up at least half of your plate with fruits and veggies, and the rest with whole grains and lean protein foods.

Be sure to eat a rainbow of colors as well, especially dark-green leafy veggies, and the red/orange/yellow fruits and vegetables. These have the highest amounts of those important phytonutrients.

For more great information, as well as a way to calculate your own recommended intake of fruits and veggies, go to the CDC's new Web site www.FruitsandVeggiesMatter.gov. Here's to your health!