Five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, have you eaten enough five servings?

Photo assistance / A-Ming

"Red fruits and vegetables can protect the heart, yellow ones can protect the eyes, green ones can keep bowel movements smooth, blue and purple ones give you a sharp mind, and white ones can boost immunity!" In order to help students develop the good habit of loving fruits and vegetables, Taipei Municipal Wanda Elementary School has long promoted nutrition education and holds a variety of lectures and activities, letting students come into direct contact with fruits and vegetables in their "uncut and uncooked" original form, so they can become friends with fruits and vegetables again.

Bright red strawberries, small and round cherry tomatoes, shredded purple cabbage, thin and long carrot sticks, and peeled apple chunks... On each long table were two round plates, filled with a dazzling array of colorful fruits and vegetables. Dietitian Chen Mei-ching patiently explained to the students the function of each color of fruit and vegetable, and also explained the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables for health.

She said: "According to surveys, 80% of students do not eat enough 'three vegetables and two fruits' every day, but eating fruits and vegetables has many benefits. It can help you grow taller, increase the body's resistance, and make us less likely to get sick. Also, because they are rich in fiber, they can promote gastrointestinal motility, so you won't get stomachaches or constipation."

Before Chen Mei-ching finished speaking, the students began to get restless and share their own experiences with constipation. Some went only once a week, and some described their stool as being like a sheep's, "round little pellets, one by one, very fun."

These childish words made Chen Mei-ching frown. She said: "Many parents have constipation problems but have not noticed that their children do too. Nowadays children eat too few fruits and vegetables, and often suddenly get stomachaches during class, but when they go to the toilet they cannot go, and in the end they have to go to the hospital."

In order to let students come into contact with fruits and vegetables they usually do not like to eat, the school, with the assistance of a group meal company, prepared two large plates of fruits and vegetables that had already been washed and cut, estimated at more than 20 kinds, and also provided salad dressing, peanut powder, and chocolate chips, letting students make a "five-color fruit and vegetable platter" with their own hands. The only condition was that it had to include fruits and vegetables of every color.

Hui-chen picked cauliflower, apple, carrot, and tomato. She also bravely picked her most hated red bell pepper. After summoning her courage and taking a bite, Hui-chen smiled, "So red bell peppers are sweet, they are not bad at all."

Syuan-yu, who is not a picky eater, usually loves oranges, guavas, cucumbers, and cauliflower; only bitter melon was listed as an unacceptable item. Although she is only in second grade, she has already felt academic pressure. She said: "Sometimes I have a lot of homework and am very busy, and I do not have time to eat fruit. During that time I feel a bit unwell, so eating more fruits and vegetables can make the body healthy, right!"

Yu-jie picked orange, wax apple, kiwi, grapes, and his favorite strawberries. He said: "What I fear most is eating eggplant, which has a strange taste. I like eating all the other fruits and vegetables." Because lunch is provided by the after-school care center and dinner is eaten out, Zhao Yu-jie feels that he often cannot get "three vegetables and two fruits," and can only rely on fruit and juice prepared by his mother to supplement nutrition. "But I still like most the dishes made by my mother and grandmother, nutritious and delicious."

Principal Zeng Zhen-fu has been in education for 30 years, and he deeply feels how the occupational environment has changed the food in children's bowls. "In the past, every class had a rice steamer, and every child had an iron lunchbox in their schoolbag. Later, in response to parents' needs, nutritious lunches were introduced. Parents shifted the responsibility for caring for their children's nutrition to the school, and now even children's dinner is entrusted to after-school care centers."

He said with emotion that schools have public authority as a gatekeeper and can require group meal companies to provide nutritious lunches with less oil, less salt, and less sugar, but from what students say, the lunches or dinners provided by after-school care centers are mostly ordered bentos. At first the children think they are delicious because the flavors are strong and the dishes are glossy with oil, but before long they get tired of them and also develop the bad habit of eating fried foods and not eating vegetables. He smiled bitterly and said: "Even if children complain, the school can only advise parents to pay attention to their children's eating-out problems. We cannot require after-school care centers to change."

"So we want children not only to like eating fruits and vegetables, but also to know how to eat fruits and vegetables." Zeng Zhen-fu said that the experiential hands-on learning of the "five-color fruits and vegetables" platter looks simple, but it can let students come into contact with seasonal fruits and vegetables, and through observing one another, taste delicious fruits and vegetables they usually do not notice, deepen their impression, and further develop the good habit of loving fruits and vegetables. In daily life afterward, children can also actively pay attention to whether their intake of fruit and vegetable nutrition is sufficient.