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

Ladyluck1

There's nothing wrong with the odd handful of raisins or tinned fruit/veg though is there?
Everything in moderation and all

lostinrates

Ladyluck1 wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with the odd handful of raisins or tinned fruit/veg though is there?
Everything in moderation and all

No, IMO there is a lot right with them. Especially as part of other lifestyle choices.

Similarly there is a lot wrong with a life that's 'obsessively' healthy to the point of health impairing stress!

nickyhutch

asparagus1968 wrote: »

exactly, this is where I'm struggling- we have a banana and fruit juice at breakfast, a piece of fruit after a packed lunch ,2 veg at least with dinner. these meals are already big enough???
we don't eat between meals,and don't eat desserts, may have to start these two things...

Last night (and most nights) I had carrots, swede, cauliflower, broccoli, white cabbage, leek, celeriac, squash and sprouts. I'd be starving if I had only 2 veg.

[Deleted User]

terra_ferma wrote: »

Another reason why the advice is flawed, they steer people towards eating dried fruit, e.g. raisins, and highly processed canned foods and fruit juice, but not nuts. It treats us like children who can't make good choices, and arbitrarily divides foods in good/bad instead of helping us make informed choices.
The 5-a-day motto has also been used as a marketing gimmick to sell foods that are actually nutritionally rather poor, but contain some fruit/veggies.
The food industry is too powerful for the government to be able to give the most appropriate advice, to eat fruit and veg in their simplest form, fresh if possible, or frozen/canned but unprocessed.

It's not the advice that's flawed, the problem is the people who manipulate it for self serving reasons.

~Chameleon~

jack_pott wrote: »

I think you will find that the reason for that is not because nuts aren't vegetable, but because they are far too high in calories to make it feasible to get your ration of F&V from them. Nuts have the second highest calorific value of all, after pure fat. They contain twice as much fat as these cream buns. Five 80g portions of nuts is about 2600kcal.

And who the hell in their right mind is going to eat 400g of nuts per day?? :rotfl:

Nuts may be high in "fat" but the fat is a natural and healthy fat and essential in our diet to process certain vitamins (A,D,E,K). They are also high in protein and contain many essential minerals.

Just ONE brazil nut contains our total RDA of selenium, essential for thyroid function. Almonds are rich in calcium, cashews contain zinc and iron, macadamias have magnesium and potassium, pecans are igh in anti-oxidants, etc etc. You won't find any of those in cream buns!!

Nuts play an important part of a healthy diet, WHEN EATEN IN MODERATION, as with all other food groups.

adouglasmhor

themull1 wrote: »

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

It wasn't the government.

LameWolf

lostinrates wrote: »

Similarly there is a lot wrong with a life that's 'obsessively' healthy to the point of health impairing stress!

:TWell said! I just looked at the NHS recommendations, and converted 80grams to ounces (grams are meaningless to me I'm afraid:() and it's roughly two and three quarter ounces! To me that's a huge amount of veg to eat all in one hit. Admittedly, my DH sometimes comments that my portion of dinner isn't worth dirtying the plate with.:cool: I don't snack at all, because if I did, I wouldn't be able to eat my meals, so no getting in any extra there. :think:

So.... I'm going to ignore the moved goalposts, just carry on as before and hope for the best.;)

adouglasmhor

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

And who the hell in their right mind is going to eat 400g of nuts per day?? :rotfl:

Nuts may be high in "fat" but the fat is a natural and healthy fat and essential in our diet to process certain vitamins (A,D,E,K). They are also high in protein and contain many essential minerals.

Just ONE brazil nut contains our total RDA of selenium, essential for thyroid function. Almonds are rich in calcium, cashews contain zinc and iron, macadamias have magnesium and potassium, pecans are igh in anti-oxidants, etc etc. You won't find any of those in cream buns!!

Nuts play an important part of a healthy diet, WHEN EATEN IN MODERATION, as with all other food groups.

I used to come close sometimes when I was playing rugby, training 7 days a week and vegetarian but only if you remember chic peas are a nut.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

I believe there are people who for whatever reason have demonstrated inability to make consistantly good choices. Or even consistantly sort of ok choices.

For them a steer towards this is going to be beneficial ( if they take it)

That's me
I like to read these things, but then the list and arguments and different viewpoints puts me off trying to be honest

I'll eat more veggies soon ..... just not now or in the last 5 years. Once I get a freezer it'll be a doddle.

I LOVE veggies .... and some fruit .... just, mostly, not the stuff they've put on charts like this: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Documents/Downloads/5%20A%20DAY%20z%20card.pdf - a lot of that I've never even had. Or they're impractical/impossible to use up unless you eat the same meal every day just to load it with those and be able to use up the pack/tin/whatever you had to buy to get the 1-2 tablespoons that is a portion.

So then you have to be in a position to have some scales and the food/s in question to be able to weigh out 80 grams and take a photo, then pin it on the wall so you remember.

[Deleted User]

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

And who the hell in their right mind is going to eat 400g of nuts per day?? :rotfl:

Nuts play an important part of a healthy diet, WHEN EATEN IN MODERATION, as with all other food groups.

That's precisely the point I'm getting at. They're good for general nutrition, but useless as a means of achieving your five a day. I eat 20g of mixed nuts and raisins every day, but the raisins only contribute a negligible 1% of my total fruit and veg consumption.