Five portions a day?

quintwins

well i just started a diet so getting loads but i havnet been well the last few days and have missed breakfast, yesterday for lunch i had bolognese which had grated carrot, mushroom, a leek and 3 different coloured peppers in it, dinner was burgers with poached egg and salad which was lettuce, tom, cucumber and pring onions so def managed it yesterday today i feel even worse so now i think about it i havnet had any fruit yet i'll be having brocolli and sweetcorn with my dinner.

E2006

I find that some days I have loads, and others less than the 5, but over the course of the week it probably evens itself out. Yesterday for example I had a bananna, an apple, some pinapple, a large salad for lunch, then dinner was a roast with brocolli, turnip, carrots, sweet potato and peas. Today Ive had a bananna and an apple, and a small salad for lunch but dinner is curry so I wont be having any more today. We probably get more from fruit than salad/veg to be honest because you have to eat such huge portions for it to count.

heretolearn_2

Interesting to see what people are eating.

It's the quantities for veg that's the problem, I find. It's easy to make, say, a beef casserole with onion, carrot, leek and green pepper and think that's an easy four, but unless that's a whole medium onion, a whole large carrot, half a green pepper and a whole leek per person, it isn't. Or salad, if you have a soup bowl size side salad made up of mixed leaves and veggies, you can't count each type separately, it still only adds up to one. Chucking a few mushrooms into something doesn't count - they reckon it's 14 button mushrooms = one portion. Or if you have peas and sweetcorn with a dinner, you need 3 heaped tablespoons of each one to get the two portions, and that's half a plate full, and I can't eat that much! (Or maybe I just own a big tablespoon, lol).

ostrichnomore_2

Yesterday
Apple (1)
Broccolli (1)
Orange (1)
onion (1)
mixed veg (1)

Made it to 5 :-)

Pink.

I've added this to our main five a day thread. This thread may help too:

Cheapest Way to Five a Day.

Pink

snowleopard61

I do it pretty easily TBH, although admittedly quite a lot of it is fruit rather than veg (not that I dislike veg at all; just that fruit is so easy because it doesn't need preparation or cooking).

Breakfast every day: A tablespoonful of raisins in porridge, plus a banana.
Lunch: Two pieces of fruit, usually an apple/two clementines/a pear/a handful of grapes/something else fairly cheap (with a sandwich).

That gets it to four and then dinner is easy, either a main item with two veg, say broccoli/sweetcorn or peas/carrots, or something made up of veg based on onions and tomatoes and served with pasta or rice, and topped with cheese or including some tinned beans - often followed by tinned fruit such as peaches or pineapple, whatever's cheap.

melanzana

TBH this five a day lark puts many people right off.

It's far too much IMO, and if anyone knows the scientific basis for 5 a day I'd be delighted to hear it.

I dont do five a day, but ensure I have at least three every day, which is dead simple. Banana or other fruit in the porridge. Two veg with dinner. Any more is a bonus, say at lunch, but is not contrived because someone said I should.

Better IMV to get three easy portions in every day, as normal, than struggling to figure out how to get in five!, and failing, and feelng bad, and all the rest of it.

Moderation in everything.

FairyPrincessk

melanzana,

You might find this to be an interesting read:

http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2010/04/07/fruit-vegetables-and-cancer-why-its-still-worth-getting-your-five-a-day/

a critical look at the current research and an argument for eating more than 3 a day. Is five a day a magic number? No, however, I do think it gives people something tangible to strive for, and I don't think it is overly burdensome if you make just a few changes. I think that this notion of a tangible number to strive for is more the basis for the government's number than it is a claim that it is somehow a magic number.

I agree--however, that getting three every day is better than giving up altogether.

ostrichnomore_2

It's an international thing and I think we've got the lowest target with only five (they figured British diet is typically so low in this stuff that we'd give up and not even try if given a higher target. There are countries where the target is 7 or 8 a day). so yes, the number is fairly arbitrary, but it does help to have something to aim at. And it does make a big difference to health to increase not only the quantity but the variety of fruit and veg in diet.

So, yesterday (sorry to bore you all but this helps me focus on getting my five)
Apple (1)
Orange (1)
broccolli (1)
onion (1)

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