has anyone a "7 a day" meal plan please?

themull1

I'm not changing anything, just because the Government says....

BitterAndTwisted

MoradoJess wrote: »

Potatoes, cassava, yam, plantain DO NOT count.

And what do you suspect is the reason for that? It's not because those foods are devoid of any nutritional value. If they were included officially some people would just carry on eating chips with every meal.

As we all know, spuds do contain nutrients or half the country would be suffering from scurvy! And they're not, are they?

lostinrates

asparagus1968 wrote: »

thanks,

the addition of purees is interesting, we eat as lot of pasta/sauce based meals.
I just can't seem to imagine eating more, without making bigger meals, which I don't want to do.

Less pasta and a side serving/starter of salad or crudite and a piece of fruit afterwards might be an example? Looking at pasta to sauce ratio and being a little less Italian about it and having a little more sauce for more veg in relation to pasta, and making sure pasta portion is right for you.

Fwiw, I think the approach to how to do it would be best considered on a position of where people are starting from. E.g. If people are a normal weight or under or overweight how best to incorporate veg might be different.

lostinrates

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

And what do you suspect is the reason for that? It's not because those foods are devoid of any nutritional value. If they were included officially some people would just carry on eating chips with every meal.

As we all know, spuds do contain nutrients or half the country would be suffering from scurvy! And they're not, are they?

No, but a lot of people are suffering from gastric problems, malnutrition issues ARE being seen increasingly and weight problems. Also lots of illnesses with a lifestyle ( potentially diet) relevance like heart related ones, diabetes etc.

We're really lucky, we like veg, eating lots is not hard and many days the problem for us would be not total amount but diversity.

lobbyludd

peewhyeff wrote: »

No plan to offer but in todays D.Mail, Aldo Zilli suggests adding beetroot and chopped peppers to home-made tomato soup(it looks like just tomato); puree of celery,leek,onion,sweetcorn,and carrot stirred into spag.bol.sauce; grated parsnip in carrot cake; and other sneaky ways of upping the fruit and veg intake without even noticing.

most of these though are simply replacing one veg with another - which helps with variety but doesn't increase your intake, swapping starchy things (pasta/rice/potatoes etc) for veg is a better idea.

I have a terrible time getting any veg down the children unfortunately, dd could happily eat 7 portions of fruit per day, ds will only eat apples and "veg" is now limited to cucumber, broccoli, tomatoes (only as a sauce, so other things hidden in there with them), and baked beans (and yes - I know this is clutching at straws!) with peas and sweetcorn under extreme sufferance.

peachyprice

Billie-jo wrote: »

what about something along these lines -


B/fast - Porridge with banana. Apple or orange juice (2)
Lunch - Salad with piece fish or meat. Coleslaw. Piece of fruit for after (3)
Tea - cottage pie with carrot, leek, onion and celery in it so at least one portion there served with cabbage & peas or sweet corn (3)
Snacks - few grapes small piece cheese, apple. (2) 10 TOTAL


B/Fast - yogurt & fruit. Juice (2)
Lunch - Pasta with mushrooms, onions, peppers in (count as 1) served with salad (1)
Tea - Curry add plenty of veg to it (1 portion) rice and serve with some tomato salsa (1)
Snack - few nuts & piece of fruit (2) 8 TOTAL


B/Fast -Fruit juice/smoothie (1) Beans on toast (beans count as 1) or cereal with added fruit (1)
Lunch - Veg or tomato soup (1 at least) have with egg & water cress or salad sandwich (1)
Tea - Lasagne with mushrooms, tomatoes, celery, peppers, grated courgette in (at least 1 portion) use a jar of passata or chopped tomatoes(1)
Serve with salad or coleslaw (1) to follow - Fruit salad (1) or ice cream with some fruit (1) or a fruit crumble (1)
Snacks - Celery & carrot sticks (1) small portion of sultanas or pineapple pieces (1) 9 TOTAL


B/Fast - Juice. Veg sausage with grilled tomatoes (1) mushrooms(1) and beans (1)
Lunch - Quiche add veg to it (1) with a salad (1)
Tea - Vegetable pie (could get 2 portions here easily) serve with sweet corn (1) Green beans (1)
Snacks -roasted red pepper puree (1) veg sticks (1) Few dried apricots 13 TOTAL

Do people really eat all that food every day?

patchwork_cat

Do you know what made me laugh about that study the figures say there is a 17% INCREASE in death rate for eating frozen or tinned fruit!


IMO it is a seriously flawed study - correlation does not equal causation! Those people that eat 7 a day are possibly more likely to be affluent and take care of their health. Really you need a lot more information to be able to identify a correlation to veg and fruit intake and longevity!


However if it makes people eat just one more portion of fruit and veg then that is a good thing as another relatively recent study has shown that those over 50 can decrease their risk of a cardiovascular event at nearly the same rate as taking a daily statin ( in certain moderate risk groups) by eating an apple. Now some reports state that it is just an extra portion of fruit and veg, but other specify an apple.

[Deleted User]

Yes, this:

Breakfast

Raw carrot
Mixed nuts & raisins
Porridge (winter) or Weetabix (summer)

Lunch

Four brown bread sandwiches with fillings selected from:

Crab paste, pilchards, salmon paste, tuna salad, egg mayo, jam, peanut butter, sandwich spread, marmite.
Two or three pieces of fresh fruit.

Dinners

(with pots & veg, or rice/pasta/noodles etc.)

Chicken and veg curry
Roast vegetables
Spaghetti bolognese
Chilli con carne
Fish casserole
Quiche
Roast chicken portions
Beef stew
Braised/grilled/fried liver
Fish in butter sauce
Fish in crumbs with peas & cous cous
Pizza
Pasty
Sausages
Mexican bean burger
Vegetable burger
Cauli cheese grill

This costs £3.20 for about 2850kcal/day (plenty for most people). If you use skimmed milk, low salt bread, and low calorie marge, I know this diet meets the following guidelines because it's been through a spreadsheet:

Seven (80g) portions of fruit and veg a day,
Under 6g of salt,
Half the 20g limit for processed meat,
Less than half the 70g limit for red and processed meat combined,
Nearly 2.5 times the recommended fibre intake,
Half the recommended saturated fat,
Two thirds of the maximum total fat limit,
Meets the recent advice that added sugar should be reduced from 10% to 5% of total calories,
16% above the recommended 23g of seafood.

Lizling

patchwork_cat wrote: »

IMO it is a seriously flawed study - correlation does not equal causation! Those people that eat 7 a day are possibly more likely to be affluent and take care of their health. Really you need a lot more information to be able to identify a correlation to veg and fruit intake and longevity!

They controlled for all those factors, along with quite a few others.

I.e. Higher fruit and veg consumption correlated with 42% reduction in the chance of dying during the study after stripping out the effects of affluence, smoking, education, exercise, age etc etc so that the only difference left was their fruit and veg consumption.

It's already pretty well established that there are benefits to eating more fruit and veg up to at least 10 portions a day. The 5 we were told before was just the number the government thought would be the right balance between being enough and being low enough that we wouldn't think it ridiculously high and ignore it. The real new information in this study is just how high the benefit of 2 more portions is.

patchwork_cat

Lizling wrote: »

They controlled for all those factors, along with quite a few others.

I.e. Higher fruit and veg consumption correlated with 42% reduction in the chance of dying during the study after stripping out the effects of affluence, smoking, education, exercise, age etc etc so that the only difference left was their fruit and veg consumption.

It's already pretty well established that there are benefits to eating more fruit and veg up to at least 10 portions a day. The 5 we were told before was just the number the government thought would be the right balance between being enough and being low enough that we wouldn't think it ridiculously high and ignore it. The real new information in this study is just how high the benefit of 2 more portions is.

How do you explain the increase in death of 17% by eating tinned/frozen fruit. This article on NHS website actual mentions other issues http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/04April/Pages/Five-a-day-should-be-upped-to-seven-a-day.aspx quote from this article 'In the study, people who consumed more fruit and vegetables were generally older, less likely to smoke, more likely to be women, be of a higher social class and have a higher standard of education...Although the researchers tried to adjust for these factors in their analyses, these differences may influence the association seenThis study provides further evidence of the benefits of eating fruit and vegetables; however, it is based on only one diet measurement over 24 hours, which may not be representative of a person's usual diet and does not take into account changes in diet over time.
This study is limited by the possibility that other factors (confounders) could have been responsible for the associations seen. In the study, people who consumed more fruit and vegetables were generally older, less likely to smoke, more likely to be women, be of a higher social class and have a higher standard of education. ... '