10 fruit & veg a day - is it really possible long term?

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I'm mulling over a diet change as I've 2 stone a bit of weight to lose. We're all familiar with the '5 a day' rule but the nhs says 10 would be better.. Could you, do you, eat 10 portions of fruit/veg a day? What would your daily diet look like breakfast/lunch & dinner? I'm interested to hear what others think? I bet it'd make a massive difference to my aches & pains & how I feel overall. I think I'd find it very hard though. Last time I tried a major diet change I lasted 3 months & fell off the wagon.

I do a large fruit salad and keep it in the fridge. Watermelon, raspberries, pineapple, apple and blood orange. So that’s 5. I also make soup with peppers, tomatoes, onion, carrots and potatoes. Another 5. It is doable. I also like very fine green beans and always put coleslaw and beetroot on the table.

I started a thread on this under the weightloss section but it is very quiet, apart from 2 or 3 lovely posters wishing me well!! Please do join me OP if you want ongoing veg weightloss chat!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/3545878-anyone-else-trying-to-up-their-veg-just-ordered-10-a-day-the-easy-way

I haven't done any of the recipes from the book yet - I was a bit disappointed with the book but interesting to hear people like the recipes.

I don't feel I am quite in the swing of the 10 a day thing yet but I got 6 at least today. I chopped up veg to take to work but forgot it!

BF avocado and cucumber on toast

lunch lidl chicken mango salad quite big prob 2 , lidl fruit salad says 1 but must be at least 2 as 200g? nakd bars count apparently as allowed 40 g dried fruit for a max of 1portion per day - I had some similar lidl things today

snack, scrape of almond butter, pumpkin seed butter and remaining bit of avocado on 1 small slice of multigrain toast

early dinner mushrooms and peas in an omelette - weighed out 200g veg

Depends on what's a portion, the Jamie Oliver healthy eating book would only class minestrone soup as three portions I think and that's packed with veggies! Wouldn't class a veggie soup as five portions. I might be wrong!

So today, thought I'd check.
Egg on toast for breakfast.
Last nights veggie stir fry for lunch, maybe three portions, even though lots of different veggies in it.
Was going to have a fruit salad after but was full!
Sweet potato dhal (sweet potato, onion, grated carrot, roast cherry tomato and garlic), maybe three.

I'd say 6/7 - the fruit salad would have got me over the line

imho, some people complicate this a lot. Eg:
If you're counting to 10, and you accept they don't have to be 10 completely different, then a single 15 oz smoothie/glass of juice/large portion of dried fruit can count as more than one.

it's when you're aiming for 5 different a day that a smoothie might be best not counting as > 1.

Special Recipe is also way too much faff for me. I tried to get at least 3 servings in each meal + least one eligible snack.

Ok I checked today and I had:
Eggs and toast
Lettuce, tomatoes, tuna, cottage cheese, ryvita
Raw red peppers
Chicken, sprouts, baby corn, carrots, onions.
That's 7 and I'm finished for tonight but would usually have had fruit with breakfast.

Juice definitely can’t count as more than 1 because all the fibre has been stripped out.

Smoothies are a bit more of a grey area, and in theory only count as 1 because they aren’t as satiating as whole fruit + veg, and can be packed with sugar. It wouldn’t be that hard to get through an entire full sized bottle of smoothie on a daily basis, assuming you could afford it, and that’s a lot of sugar. The nutritional value and fibre content remains pretty much the same as whole f&v.

It comes down to common sense and understanding why the rule exists, and i personally wouldn’t hesitate to count a smoothie as more than one portion if I was drinking it as a meal replacement, rather than as a drink or snack.

I also don’t think it’s true that the servings all have to be different types. The guidelines are pretty clear about pulses and juice only counting once, but say nothing about specific veg only counting once.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day-what-counts/

So bollocks to that, I say. Use common sense, and try to eat a wide variety of fruit and veg overall.

Agree that 10 different kinds of veg a day seems excessive - I can find nothing that suggests it needs to be 10 different veg rather than say, max 1 portion for legumes, max 1 portion for smoothie, and the rest made up however you want. So I'm assuming that people have just misunderstood, because the old 5 a day advice suggested different veg?

A lot of the rules seem quite arbitrary so I think people just have to decide for themselves how they want to interpret them.

From the 10 a day book 80 g of raw veg is a portion - you can have 2 or more portions of the same veg and it counts. Cooked portions reduce in size a lot and in some cases more nutrients become available so cooked veg is a good option. 30g tomato puree is a portion and 40g dried fruit. Fruit does count and the book suggests that it is healthier to include some fruit rather than to just have veg.

However juice and smoothies only count for 1 no matter how many portions were put in the blender. Soup can count as a max of 2 portions no matter how much veg used (I imagine this is only for blended soup). The reason soup counts for 2 is that you eat it with a spoon and it is more satisfying (which I get, but it is a bit random). Legumes can count for 1 portion a day. Baked beans can count as a portion.

Condiments, coleslaw etc do not count due to negative impact of sugar and salt added. I was sad to hear olives don't count. However I think there is a suggestion that homemade healthier versions of these items do count.

Damn, why don't olives count? I can eat millions of them!

I manage 7-10 a day without much effort but I am a vegetarian. So today for example:
Raspberries (with oats, pecans and almond milk)
Clementines (snack)
Avocado, spinach, cherry toms, butternut squash (was a salad with pitta, homous and mozzarella)
Banana (snack)
Onion, edamame beans, mushroom, pepper (stir fry)

I honestly think its because I always have a portion of fruit with breakfast and have fruit for snacks and generally salads for lunches, all these things add up to make a difference I guess

Breakfast... Tomatoes on toast (tinned plum)

Lunch - slaw salad... Carrot, celariac, red cabbage, peppers, cucumber, pepper, seeds, a bit of halloumi, maybe sprouted stuff too

Supper... Chick pea tomato, sweet potato and pepper stew with wraps

Snacks... Grapes and apples

Most sources (including my nemesis) say that olives count. BHF doesn't like olives to count due to salt content.

Last night I made a harissa spiced stew, which would have given us a good hit. (Tin of chickpeas, onion, two peppers, three celery sticks, two carrots, tin of tomatoes, leftover roast chicken.) Tonight I stuck a load of veg in a bolognese, and DP had a couple of satsumas with his work lunch, but most days I think we don’t come close. MUst try harder.

The fruit would be the sticking point for me, with this. I have my daily banana, maybe a little dried fruit in my muesli and the odd few blueberries or strawberries, but too much fruit simply doesn't agree with me. And I don't really snack and when I do snack, I tend to have nuts as they actually stave off the hunger.

Love veg and pulses, though.

I was surprised about the olives too - yes I think it is the salt that is the problem. Maybe posh ones in oil are ok.

I do this daily - and more I expect. For the last 4 years I've been consuming a low fat raw vegan diet based on fresh produce: predominately fresh fruit, vegetables, leafy greens and small amounts of dried fruit, nuts, seeds and sea vegetables.
Lost 2 stone and kept it off, perimenopause symptoms abated, alleviated mood disorder.
Typically I dont eat before midday, but if I did, it would be a blended melon, a whole one such as a honeydew.
Lunch is a green smoothie with 350g greens, mango, apple, blackberries. Also additional fruit such as a couple of pears and an apple, or maybe a papaya if feeling flush!
Dinner is always an epic salad - another 350g greens, courgette noodles, grated beetroot maybe, cherry tomatoes and a mango-red pepper dressing or something similar. Might make a savoury side dish such as sushi in nori wraps, or burger type things.Might have banana icecream afterwards made with a few dates for sweetness.
I dont know how many portions that is, but the diet is pretty much exclusively freshf ruit and veg.

It did take me a bit of effort to find fruit and veg that I enjoy and which doesn't take too long to prep, but now I know that, I now find getting my 5-10 very easy.

The main benefit I've received from this has been the 100% improvement in my mental health. Also- I feel more inclined to get outside for a walk, and though I don't weigh myself, I am sure I have lost weight.

I also love the fact that it's not a restrictive diet - it's an inclusive diet!

An example of what I normally eat is below... (Although, I've realised, looking at this list, that I eat a massive amount of fruit! Oops!!)

porridge cooked with 35g oats, some water, a handful of frozen mixed berries and a banana (2) - with cranberry juice (1)

snack - a plum / carrot/celery sticks w. hummus (1-2)

lunch - avacado on toast and an apple (2)

snack - an orange and some dates (2)

dinner - baked sweet potato squares, tofu/chickpeas, chopped peppers and chopped onion, served with finley chopped salad, sesame seed oil and parsley. (4-6)

Breakfast - Spinach (with poached egg)
Lunch - big salad with grated carrot, beetroot, tomato, lettuce, cucumber,celery. (with 3 felafel) An apple.

snack - soy beans.

Dinner - pea (and paneer curry) with cauliflower mash and steamed courgetts. An Orange.

13 - normal day for me and I wasn't even trying!

7 full portion of vegetables

(Half can chickpeas, 3 full sticks of celery, 2 whole peppers)

Cost of the above:

30p chickpeas
80p peppers
20p celery

£1.30 total cost of lunch

I was in Asda this morning and in their free magazine there are some yum looking recipes that include the veg count. Going to try the spiced sweet potato and lentil soup tonight.

Pic

Sorry pic a bit fuzzy but 1 portion counts as 3 veg.

I like the look of that spring veg minestrone, Plum.