The Ten a Day challenge, join me

oldtractor

Prinzessilein wrote: »

And sweet potatoes are a veg (yes?..) I could do 'chips'! (spray with frylight and bake...and sprinkle with black pepper)

Yes sweet potatoes count as veg
:j

MallyGirl

In the end I managed 10 yesterday with a few dinner menu changes.

Today:
berries with breakfast - 1
bns and cauli soup - I am going with 4 for this
1/2 banana left from pancakes, will have some hummus to make up to 1
fruit cocktail as I found an out of date can in the cupboard - 1
kale, carrots, sweet potato with casserole - 3

10!

oldtractor

cant find it now but somewhere there is a link to a lo carb cauli cheese straws. have these in the oven at the moment.
had half a grapefruit with a salad and beans for lunch followed by berry jelly. I make it 8 portions today so far.
dinner later is chicken with courgettes left over veg from yesterday and sweet potato that'll be another 3 making 11 in total or 12 f I eat some of the cauli bake for snack.

elsiepac

Ooh fun, I'd like to join in! I'm vegan and I know I usually have more than 5 a day, but not sure if I'm hitting 10!
I read the first page and saw that there were some negative comments! Bit surprising really, as it's a nice healthy thing to do. Some people commented that 5 a day was acheivable and 10 might put people off. I agree it might, but that is exactly why the government is not changing their official guidelines. It's better for people to eat 5 a day, than see they should eat 10 and just give up and have none!

Anyway, today I had toast for breakfast so none there
Lunch was a spicy veg (carrot, celery, swede, cabbage) and pinto bean soup with homemade bread roll - I have this all week. I've worked it out to be 2.5 portions per serving, of which 1/2 portion is beans.
I have had an apple - 1
And a clementine - 1/2

Wow so I've only had 4 portions so far!!

Dinner tonight is butternut squash, shallot and butter bean casserole with herby dumplings.
The quantities of butternut and shallot per serving will be enough to count as 1 portion each, and I think the butter beans are sufficient to count for 1/2 portion.
I'm serving it with green beans and sugar snap peas which will definitely be enough for a portion each.

That still only brings me to 8.5 portions! Although the casserole may have more veg in it but I can't remember without looking at the recipe. I may also serve with broccoli or cauliflower orboth, and I might have a banana this afternoon.

This is certainly eye opening!

Hollyberry

Note to self: ten is even more of a challenge if you forget breakfast. Oops!

So lunch included carrots, sweetcorn, green beans, peas, sugar snaps and mushrooms. Definitely a portion of each. And an apple.

Dinner is sushi, so really minute amounts of veg in there unless the nori counts? It will have a big salad alongside with pepper, beetroot, cucumber and radish. Banana for pud.

I should be just about there. That is if my jaw doesn't get tired with all the chewing.

Doom_and_Gloom

Pop_Up_Pirate wrote: »

Fruit should be limited to no more than 2/3 portions a day no matter what form it comes in so a totally fruit smoothie, not a good idea.

I can't agree with this statement. As someone who usually eats 10+ (more like 15+) fruits and vegetables a day I find the energy of fruit invaluable for the start of the day before moving onto vegetables in the afternoon/evening. Most of the consumption will be vegetables though. However 5 fruits for breakfast and snack is not unlikely.
I don't add sugar to my coffee or teas. I usually drink an unsweetened plant milk. The foods I eat are mostly from scratch. Baked beans I usually buy reduced salt and sugar but not all the time. I rarely eat chocolate or other high sugar items. I sometimes drink a Luscombe drink with has quite a lot of sugar but I mostly drink water, black coffee, green tea or tea with a little plant milk. Basically in the main I don't consume a lot of processed sugar. Natural sugars with fibers as you said are processed by the body differently.
Even for diabetics fruit does not, in the main, spike blood sugars like processed sugars. They have found that most will have normal or only slightly elevated blood sugars when tested a few hours after the consumption of fruits.

I agree that the vegetables should outweigh the fruit for consumption, however to say fruit should be limited to 2 or 3 is daft. Better a banana, mango, pineapple etc than a chocolate bar/cola etc that will cause sugar spikes.
After all sugar spikes have been linked to many illnesses and diseases, including but not limited to cancers.

oldtractor

Welcome elsiepac

Rowan9

Today - fruit: apple, banana, handful dried cranberries, one nakd bar but that won't count as is second dried fruit.
Veg and pulses- lunch was usual work lunch of (spinach) humus and spinach leaf sandwich. Tea - veg soup then spicy bean stew. (again haha) didn't do side of veg as was tired but did have green smoothie when I came in from work - spinach, half apple, spoon of super berry and seeds pack. Didn't taste great but drank it up.
So, not much variety for me today but I usually do better and I'm just accepting that.
Can't remember if nuts count but had walnuts and Brazil nuts.

katkin

My digestive tract is complaining, talk about bloated and windy lol..and the rest!

Apologies for tmi. Anyone,we having err side effects?

Pop_Up_Pirate

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

I can't agree with this statement. As someone who usually eats 10+ (more like 15+) fruits and vegetables a day I find the energy of fruit invaluable for the start of the day before moving onto vegetables in the afternoon/evening. Most of the consumption will be vegetables though. However 5 fruits for breakfast and snack is not unlikely.
I don't add sugar to my coffee or teas. I usually drink an unsweetened plant milk. The foods I eat are mostly from scratch. Baked beans I usually buy reduced salt and sugar but not all the time. I rarely eat chocolate or other high sugar items. I sometimes drink a Luscombe drink with has quite a lot of sugar but I mostly drink water, black coffee, green tea or tea with a little plant milk. Basically in the main I don't consume a lot of processed sugar. Natural sugars with fibers as you said are processed by the body differently.
Even for diabetics fruit does not, in the main, spike blood sugars like processed sugars. They have found that most will have normal or only slightly elevated blood sugars when tested a few hours after the consumption of fruits.

I agree that the vegetables should outweigh the fruit for consumption, however to say fruit should be limited to 2 or 3 is daft. Better a banana, mango, pineapple etc than a chocolate bar/cola etc that will cause sugar spikes.
After all sugar spikes have been linked to many illnesses and diseases, including but not limited to cancers.

Out of a total intake of fruits and vegetables , 1/4 to 1/3 should be fruit, and the rest vegetables because vegetables contain more micro-nutrients than fruit.

If you are consuming 15 portions a day, then 5 portions of fruit is an upper limit. Any more than that, then you are taking in less nutrients than you think you are.

For 10 a day, the upper limit is 2 or 3 pieces of fruit.