Are you getting enough?

greenbee

It's important to weigh your F&V when you start working this out - 1 portion of lettuce is HUGE whereas a portion of broccoli is quite small...

I've had my fruit for the day. Dug some out of the freezer to have with yogurt.

If I'm organised lunch will be a goats cheese and bean salad (1) with tomato (2) lettuce (3) radish (4) and courgette (5) and supper will be an omelette with onion (6), red and yellow pepper (7), spinach (7.5) and sweetcorn (8).

If i'm not organised I have no idea what I'll eat...

tori.k

An easy way is swap some of the carbs in a meal to veg, cauliflower rice with curry shredded cabbage instead of spaghetti for bolognese, sweet potatoes instead white for jackets, cauliflower crust for pizza base ( that one is a bit of a faff) or courgette to noodles even desert can be veg'ed up with avocado to replace butter in brownies, beetroot or courgette for cakes.

moneyistooshorttomention

Yep...to veggie-ing up things. One meal planned for today is courgetti (instead of spaghetti) with some sort of sauce - am rather thinking I might give nasturtium pesto a go with it. Will probably serve tomatoes as a "side" with that. So that should be around 5 portions just with that - before I start thinking about some fruit afterwards (watermelon today). Then there's the blackberries I had with my morning porridge.

I read somewhere that a "portion" of vegetables is about half a cup measurement I believe? It would be different with lettuce obviously - but I have the idea lettuce isnt deemed to have many nutrients in it? So I tend to mentally guesstimate out how many times my half cup measure from my set of measuring cups would be filled by what I am about to eat. My courgetti today will probably be about 3-4 of those half cups worth for instance.

Say:
- courgetti = 3
- nasturtiums = 0.5-1
- tomatoes = 1
- blackberries = 1
- watermelon = 1
- fruit at lunchtime = 2

I might throw in another portion or two of veggies at lunchtime too.

Soworried

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Yep...to veggie-ing up things. One meal planned for today is courgetti (instead of spaghetti) with some sort of sauce - am rather thinking I might give nasturtium pesto a go with it. Will probably serve tomatoes as a "side" with that. So that should be around 5 portions just with that - before I start thinking about some fruit afterwards (watermelon today). Then there's the blackberries I had with my morning porridge.

I read somewhere that a "portion" of vegetables is about half a cup measurement I believe? It would be different with lettuce obviously - but I have the idea lettuce isnt deemed to have many nutrients in it? So I tend to mentally guesstimate out how many times my half cup measure from my set of measuring cups would be filled by what I am about to eat. My courgetti today will probably be about 3-4 of those half cups worth for instance.

Say:
- courgetti = 3
- nasturtiums = 0.5-1
- tomatoes = 1
- blackberries = 1
- watermelon = 1
- fruit at lunchtime = 2

I might throw in another portion or two of veggies at lunchtime too.

I thought 1 type of vegetable could only count for 1 of your 5 a day?

Soworried

Mushrooms - Button, 59 g
Sainsbury's - Garlic Clove, 7 g
Red Pepper - 48g
Onions - Raw, 40 g(s)
Onions - Spring or scallions (includes tops and bulb), raw, 54 g(s)
Chick peas 200g

This was all I had yesterday as I had a plain omelette for lunch and sugar free jelly with a protein bar for breakfast. My protein had been a bit low for a couple of days so I needed a boost.

I guess that to be around 3 portions? I'll aim to do better today!

moneyistooshorttomention

Soworried wrote: »

I thought 1 type of vegetable could only count for 1 of your 5 a day?

I've been getting confused by posts on this thread - as that's what I thought - but thought "I musta got it wrong then".

Does anyone have the link to website that will say?

usernameisvalid

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I've been getting confused by posts on this thread - as that's what I thought - but thought "I musta got it wrong then".

Does anyone have the link to website that will say?

The way I've always understood it is that you can eat 5 apples a day and that's five portions BUT it's not going to do much good

I've always understood that you can count one portion of juice or smoothie, and then the rest of the portions should ideally come from a variety of fruit and veg.

Don't they suggest you go for a variety of colours to ensure you are getting the best nutritional value from your intake?

Today is going to be a mega fail as I've just had toast and marmite for breakfast then I'm out in the car for 5 hours and next time I get time to eat it will be with the grandkids and will more then likely a fast food meal as they will be hungry and tired from the drive, as will I be

And I take it red wine really doesn't count? :rotfl:

Soworried

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Pages/FAQs.aspx#favourite

NHS FAQ page, it is a bit ambiguous. It doesn't say it does or it doesn't count just that you should aim for them to be different. So I'm none the wiser :rotfl:

FairyPrincessk

The rules on multiple servings counting vary. For pulses, only one serving counts and the same goes for juices. Multiple portions of other things will count, although wider variety is preferable.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Pages/Whatcounts.aspx

We started counting several years ago and these days I just periodically check in for several days that week to make sure we're broadly on track. Sometimes we do better than others, but overall we get a fair amount of veg. The main difficulty is things like lettuce, raw spinach etc. as you really do have to eat a mountain of it to make a full serving, so I usually just count salads based on a full serving of the veg I put on top of the greens (i.e. cucumber, radish etc.)

OH tends to eat more fruit than I do as he snacks on it, but it is on top of what I eat rather than a replacement for so we don't worry about it too much.

cyantist

I really need to eat more healthily, and trying to increase my fruit and veg is a good start. Though I might struggle as I’m feeling quite sick these days and aren’t actually very good at eating anything!

One question though. I know the rules states no smoothies, but if you take fresh fruit and just blend it up, why does it not count?