The National Eat Your Vegetable Day is observed on the 17th of June each year. This celebration is held in June which is actually National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month. This day provides an opportunity for everyone to eat healthily by eating vegetables which are actually good for our bodies. Vegetables are essential parts of a healthy lifestyle. Hence, a special day for vegetables has been dedicated to them. People enjoy celebrating National Eat Your Vegetable Day as much as they enjoy celebrating World Milk Day.
What is National Eat Your Vegetables Day?
Vegetables can either be the leafy parts of a plant or even the fruits, roots, twigs, and seedlings. There are various ways of how vegetables are eaten. Vegetables are often included in meals and dishes. But they can also be eaten as snacks. Different kinds of vegetables have different nutritional contents. But they are rich in vitamins, proteins, and other important nutrients for the body.
During National Eat Your Vegetable Day, people give honor to these food heroes. Activities like vegetable harvesting, vegetable eating, and vegetable dish contests are held as ways to celebrate the important day. But note that one major purpose of this day is to promote eating vegetables to people. Unfortunately, many people don’t like eating vegetables simply because they don’t like the taste or they think that other foods just taste better than these life saviors.
History of National Eat Your Vegetable Day
The history of National Eats Your Vegetable Day can be traced back to when humans started to incorporate vegetables in their daily meals.
What is the history of vegetables?
Vegetables have always played an important role in the lives of humans. Even during ancient times, when humans just first came into the world, they were just hunters-gatherers. They obtain food either by hunting animals or by gathering fruits and vegetables. This means that vegetables have always been an important part of the eating habits of humans. Unfortunately, over time, as more and more foods were discovered and processed, vegetables became less popular foods for humans. Nowadays, many diseases are caught by people simply because they don’t eat vegetables or they simply eat too few vegetables.
What is the history of National Eat Your Vegetable Day?
Unfortunately, even with our extensive research, we cannot find how, when, and who started the National Eat Your Vegetable Day. But one thing is for sure – we know why such a celebration was started. The purpose of this event is to promote the eating of vegetables to the people. Yes, most vegetables don’t taste delicious as most of the foods available in grocery stores. But there are so many ways to make them tastier. It all depends on how you make your dishes that contain veggies.
When is National Eat Your Vegetables Day?
This event is always celebrated on the 17th of June each year. This means that this year, people will celebrate the National Eat Your Vegetables Day on June 17.
How to Celebrate National Eat Your Vegetable Day?
There are so many different kinds of activities conducted by people to make their celebration of this day as fun and as enjoyable as possible. Here are some of them:
Eat Veggies in Your Home or at a Restaurant
Perhaps the best way to celebrate this day is by eating veggies. You can do so either in your home or in a restaurant. If you have time, you can look for an online recipe or a cookbook that teaches you how to make veggie dishes. If you don’t have time, you can just dine out at a restaurant that serves tasty veggie dishes. You don’t have to give up on meat just to realize that you need veggies in your daily meals. You can eat them in combination.
Plant Veggies in Your Home
Another good way to celebrate this day is by planting veggies in your home. If you have a garden, a lawn, or a backyard, then it will be a good idea to plant some vegetables there. You can even just plant some in tiny pots if you don’t have space for such veggies. Many vegetables can grow in small pots.
Celebrate on Social Media
You can also take your celebration on social media. Perhaps you can use the hashtag #NationalEatYourVegetablesDay to let your friends and family know that you are taking part in the celebration of this important day.
Of course, this day cannot be celebrated to the max without you sharing some good and interesting facts about the National Eat Your Vegetables Day. Some of them are:
- Bell peppers vary in color. Some of them are green while others are red. But there are also those colors yellow or purple.
- Tomatoes have very high contents of lycopene, which is a carotenoid. This lowers your risk of getting cancer.
- Other vegetables that are high in carotenoids include carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, and collard greens.
- Most of the nutrients in potato can be found in the layer just below the skin. Hence, potatoes are best eaten with the skin. Just make sure to clean them well.
- Yams and potatoes are not the same.
- Tomatoes were once considered as fruits. But a Supreme Court ruling in 1893 finalized their classification as vegetables.
- Potatoes made their first appearance in 1586 in Europe. They then made their way into North American in 1719.
- There was one vegetable disaster – the Irish Potato famine which caused the potato disease called Late Blight. Potatoes cannot be eaten during this time. Lots of people starved which killed about half a million people.