Five portions a day?

Lalaladybird

Thanks for your posts. Right, I need a plan, maybe I waste a lot of f&v:rolleyes: I'll add up the cost of our f&v consumption below and maybe someone can tell me if that sounds right

Breakfasts.... put raisins and/or chopped banana on cereal/porridge (50p for the three of us x 7 days = £3.50?)

Snacks... bag of value apples for the week 99p, punnet of plums £1, bag of clementines £1.49, bag of grapes £1.50? so that's about £5

Lunches.... salad - lettuce, carrot, cucumber £1.50. Veg soups 2 a week... 2 leeks 80p, celery 60p, carrots 50p, onions bag £1, courgettes £2. so thats about £6.40

Dinner sides.... brocolli 50p, cauliflower 60p, red cabbage 60p, green beans £1 so that's £2.70

Dinner ingredients.... garlic, onions, potatoes, celery, peppers, carrots that comes to about £4

Puddings....tinned fruit, frozen berries....about £3

That all approximately comes to £24 :rolleyes: AAAAAH !

slummymummyof3

Don't forget your red lentils - add to chilli. shepherds pie etc, no one notices they are there!
Tinned tomatoes as well.

nimbo

Lalaladybird wrote: »

Thanks for your posts. Right, I need a plan, maybe I waste a lot of f&v:rolleyes: I'll add up the cost of our f&v consumption below and maybe someone can tell me if that sounds right

Breakfasts.... put raisins and/or chopped banana on cereal/porridge (50p for the three of us x 7 days = £3.50?)

That all approximately comes to £24 :rolleyes: AAAAAH !

if you pop into ASDA you can get a bag about the size of a bag of sugar for £1.50 which will last a few weeks, and they has about 10 bananas for around a quid....

also stewed apple would be good on porridge, and if you freecycle or have a friend with a tree the apples would be free...

jayward

hi if you visit the the supermarket websites you can find out what is on offer ,aldi have six items at a good price and they change once a month
hope this helps

carlislelass

our local market do bowls of fruit[ sometimes veg ]for £1 each. you can always put squishy fruit in a jelly.

Butterfly_Brain

I get my fruit and veg in Aldi they always have goood deals on
Cabbage, Cauli, Broccoli, Onions, Carrots and New Potatoes are all 39p and it is good quality.

naturally_2

Just wanted to add my 2p worth. I believe that blitzing fruit in a food processor actually breaks down the structure of the fruit a lot more/in a different way to chewing it, and our body therefore finds it easier to use things like the not so brilliant sugars that are found in fruit - particularly in processed or cooked fruit. Not so obvious with a banana but think about an apple - even when you swallow, its still has "bits", right?

Chewing rather than drinking food also affects our satiation levels (how full we feel). I could drink a whole carton of smoothie but not eat the equivilant amount of fruit, if that makes sense? Same with dried fruit, but that's more of a diet than nutritional point.

Interestingly, the same does not apply to most veg, because of their lower sugar content.

I do think smoothies have their place - better for somebody who doesn't eat and fruit or veg to drink a smoothie a day than nothing at all - just don't kid yourself that its equal to eating whole raw fruit.

Confuzzled

squeaky wrote: »

Well that's no good to anybody - it doesn't have chocolate in it

Actually, it doesn't have potato either

potatoes are considered starch vs a vegetable, also in some cases peas and corn are considered starches. i know the american diabetes association considers them starches not sure about over here though

Confuzzled

crana999 wrote: »

Smoothies only counting as one sounds like garbage to me, I even emailed the DOH site to ask why they said that as it made no sense.

from my understanding the main reason why juices and smoothies don't count as more than one portion has to do with their lack of fibre. since the solids aren't always left in they don't have as much fibre as actually eating a piece of fruit. fibre is just as important to your body as the vitamins in the fruit, without enough fibre not only will your digestion be sluggish but you are more prone to digestive illnesses including bowel cancer.

i would think smoothies would count for more than juice in that regard though and i have often wondered how innocent smoothies can get away with counting them as 2 portions when i consistantly see the gov't sites saying it's just one...who knows

Confuzzled

dolly_day_dream wrote: »

When my children were little I had only one rule at dinner. They didn't have to eat everything but if they left a significant portion of their meal then they obviously were not hungry so went without desert. No fuss was made about them eating vegetables and as a result they will now eat just about anything. .

i do the same with my 7 year old, always have and it's pretty much the same here. it's a rare occassion when she opts out of dessert! however, not wanting to encourage her to overfil herself or ignore her own hunger cues i make sure i give her reasonable size portions and she's always welcome to seconds if she wants. also pudding is still available later in the evening if she chooses to not eat all of her dinner all at one go, however NOTHING else is on offer til her dinner is finished that evening and she gets MY choice of breakfast the next morning if she doesn't finish her dinner eventually that evening.

this has cut down on 99% of food battles and she happily eats most of what i cook. mind you some things get eaten faster than others and occasionally she'll ask me not to cook something a certain way or to not give her as much of something she really doesn't like and i respect that as much as is reasonable.

my own mum made me eat at least 1 tablespoon full of anything i didn't like if that was what was for dinner. after that i could have more of the other stuff that was also for dinner but i always had to eat what they were eating, like it or not. i've also done this with my daughter (it was a smaller amount when she was younger) and it's very effective for getting past food struggles and her aquiring new tastes.

now as for getting her 5 a day in her thats' no problem. she'd eat 10 portions of fruit a day if i could afford to let her and if i kept cucumbers, tomatoes and carrots in the house out in a fruit bowl she'd eat nearly as many of those each day too! just wish i could afford that!!!