Five portions a day?

Bexstars

thats a great tip for half eaten apples, my 2 year old rarely finishes a full one

r.mac_2

anytime I am making a tomato sauce I grate in a carrot or two - pads out the sauce with something healthy and not too expensive

smiler34

Hi don't know if the smoothie question has been answered but I think it only counts as one no matter how much you have because the smaller fruit an dveg is chopped the less nutrients you get from it.

ness_w

The smoothie jury is out a bit I think, though the DoH says it's only one, others disagree.

Ness.

Steve-o

buxtonrabbitgreen wrote: »

Hmmm. Do we really need 5 a day. I like the odd banana, but am not planning on trying to get 5 a day. I was just thinking about how healthy the Danes are and they eat very little veg. They eat lots of fish (herrings lovely) and all cycle all over the place. Thier diets seem to consist of mainly meat rye bread potatoes fish and beer!! I am only going on my experience of visiting family and friends there. But it is quite usual to see very elderly ladies on bikes wearing fur coats getting the shopping in the middle of winter. There also seems to be a distinct lack of pre prepared ready meal type food.

Their diet (generally) must be healthy, if they as a nation are (generally) healthy. The required vitamins, minerals, fibre, nutrient balance, etc, is probably met through their traditional diet. The UK (generally), however, has a much more varied and potentially unhealthy diet.

Cooking skills (and time available) have reduced over the years in the UK, so the 5-a-day message is seen as a good starting point to get everyone at the minimum nutrient levels for a healthy diet that can help prevent the onset of a number of illnesses. Even the ready-meals can be made nutritionally better with the addition of a few frozen veg.

Healthy diet = less disease = less people ill = a generally healthier nation = lower number of preventable illnesses draining money from the over-stretched NHS coffers. :j


Ahem, sermon over.
Steve, Dietetic student.

ness_w

Steve-o wrote: »

Their diet (generally) must be healthy, if they as a nation are (generally) healthy. The required vitamins, minerals, fibre, nutrient balance, etc, is probably met through their traditional diet. The UK (generally), however, has a much more varied and potentially unhealthy diet.

Cooking skills (and time available) have reduced over the years in the UK, so the 5-a-day message is seen as a good starting point to get everyone at the minimum nutrient levels for a healthy diet that can help prevent the onset of a number of illnesses. Even the ready-meals can be made nutritionally better with the addition of a few frozen veg.

Healthy diet = less disease = less people ill = a generally healthier nation = lower number of preventable illnesses draining money from the over-stretched NHS coffers. :j


Ahem, sermon over.
Steve, Dietetic student.

There is a guy who argues this isn't there. He says you should only shop around the edge of the supermarket and only eat what our great grandmothers would recognise as food. He points out that diets vary massively from one culture to another, and all supply the necessary nutrients for people, the one that doesn't do it is the western diet and that's why we need to increase our fruit and veg intake - to counteract the 'bad' things we eat. That's how I understand it anyway.

Ness.

pollyanna24

Our record for eating veg with our dinner is quite bad, and not just because we don't particularly like them, but sometimes the dinners just don't go well with veg. I have looked at what we have eaten so far this month and wondered if anyone could tell me how to add veg in there (I have only put the ones where we didn't eat veg).

Ham/cheese Omelettes (we usually have a vingegar lettuce salad with these, but I'm sure if that counts as veg.

Pizza (I'm going to start making homemade ones again - will pepper/pineapple count?)

Lasagne/spag bol and g.bread

Sausages/pasta/pasta sauce

Thanks in advance. I could do with more veg as I'm 22 weeks pregnant.

Pink.

Hi Pollyanna,

Any veg you eat, even lettuce/salad counts. There is a great thread on how to get your five fruit and veg portions per day that might give you some ideas so I'll add your question to that to keep all the replies together.

Pink

HypnoNu

There's lots of easy ways to get veg in you even if you don't fancy having it as a "portion of veg" with your meal...looking at the things you eat

Ham/cheese Omelettes (we usually have a vingegar lettuce salad with these, but I'm sure if that counts as veg. - Can you pop a bit of onion /mushroom/pepper,etc in with the omelette? The salad does count too!

Pizza (I'm going to start making homemade ones again - will pepper/pineapple count?) - Tomato in the sauce, veggies on top? coleslaw on the side?

Lasagne/spag bol and g.bread - grated carrot/courgette in the bolognese sauce, sliced mushrooms, diced pepper?

Sausages/pasta/pasta sauce - again with the pasta sauce just grate or finely chop some veg into the sauce, or with sausages have creamed leeks or even Onion gravy (onions count too!)

champys

Another quick and easy option is to throw a handful or two of frozen peas in the pasta cooking water just before the pasta is done. They go with pretty much any pasta sauce!