A few questions re. 5 a day

[Tryingtobehealthy]

1. Is it ok to just have 5 a day? I know it's at least 5 a day but it's still considered healthy enough if you only have 5 a day, right?

1. Can you count mixed veg as 1 portion? You know those little 1 serving size bags of mixed veg - there isn't enough of each individual veg to count by itself, but can it count as 1 portion altogether? Or do you need to have a full portion of a particular veg for it to count? (not sure if I made sense there!)

1. Are there any 'rules' about how the 5 a day is supposed to be split between fruit & veg or doesn't it matter as long as it's varied?

[KnickKnack]

1. "only" 5 a day is brilliant (although obviously more would be even better)

1. Yes, that will count as 1 portion of veg

1. Doesn't matter as long as it is a mix of both. Best if you can have a variety of different throughout the week, not just stick to old favourites

well done

[AMumInScotland]

5 is good. I think more is meant to be even better, but 5 is "enough". Get up to 5 then think about whether you can manage more, don't think there's no point bothering with 5 because 10 would be even better IYSWIM?

Mixed veg would count as 1, it doesn't have to be all the same. So a portion of fruit salad counts as 1, and so would your mixed veg bag.

I don't think there's any rules in terms of the health benefits, but you're probably getting quite a lit of sugar if you have 5 portions of fruit a day, so you have to consider how that balances up with the rest of your diet.

HTH!

[Fennel]

You're really supposed to aim for around 9 a day, but the health promoters realise that'll just be too much change for most people.

Apparently only about 1/5 of UK adults manage 5 a day.

Rules as far as I understand them, fruit/veg proportion doesn't matter but fruit juice/smooties only count as maximum one. I think opinion varies about whether baked beans, chickpeas, lentils etc count. (I count them in 9-a-day but not in 5-a-day tallies).

[Tryingtobehealthy]

Thanks everyone, that's helpful. I always thought we ate a lot of fruit & veg but when I started to tally it up I was shocked to discover that we rarely have 5 a day, let alone more Aside form anything else, don't people find it really expensive to eat a variety of 5 a day for a family of 4?! If it was just apples & pears that'd be fine but by the time I've bought strawberries, grapes, blueberries, peppers etc. it costs a flipping fortune!!

[AMumInScotland]

Some of the supermarkets have special offers on fruit & veg to help - but that depends if your family like the stuff they've got on offer! The veg can be much cheaper than the fruit too, specially if you get things when they're in season.

And remember frozen and tinned ones count too.

[Fennel]

Apples and pears and bananas are fine, you don't HAVE to have all the expensive berries, that's just marketing promotion trying to convince everyone that blueberries are SuperFood.

At risk of being a bit boring, local seasonal veg are generally cheap - carrots and cabbage and cauliflower. And you can grow lettuce and rocket easily, even I do and I hardly ever garden but am very keen on salad leaves.

Tinned and dried fruit count, and they can be very cheap.

[ByThePowerOfGreyskull]

you may find this site usefull.

It certainly opened my eyes for the kids.. their portion sizes are tiny

[ByThePowerOfGreyskull]

sorry I meant here

[Tryingtobehealthy]

Greyskull, thanks for that link. Do you know where the kids portions sizes info is? I can't find it on there... would love to know!

[EachPeachPearMum]

It doesn;t actually say anywhere what size a child's portion is- adult is 80g.

[EachPeachPearMum]

A quick google search later... this was the top link!

[ByThePowerOfGreyskull]

ooh sorry didn't come back to the thread..
OOh it isn't on there is it.. will get hunting... the link EPPM put up wasn't the one I was thinking of.. it had detail about raisins etc on it..