Do you eat your five fruits/vegetables a day?

[Hope54321]

I’ll start off by answering:

No

But one portion would be 2 largish strawberries, 1 tbsp blueberries and 7 raspberries. Which is very easy, especially if you have bags of frozen berries in the freezer - just take out what you need and either defrost overnight in the fridge or give it a quick blast in the microwave.

Half a portion of one veg and half of another is one portion. You don't have to eat a full portion of everything for it to count.

In Q1w2e3's example, the person had counted it the fruit on their morning yogurt as 2-3 portions.

I can't speak for everyone, but I do.

My breakfast is a whole cereal bowl of berries topped with yoghurt, so easily 2-3 portions. Lunch salad will contain a couple of big handfuls of lettuce, 8 cherry tomatoes, 1/4 of a cucumber. 1/2 an avocado, 1/2 a red pepper, some red onion and some olives, so again easily 2-3 portions. Dinner might be something like a chilli or lasagne with half a tin of tomatoes, half an onion, half a courgette, 1/4 of a large aubergine, 1/4 tin of red kidney beans actually in the dish and then a generous side salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber.

It isn't that hard to eat 80g of most fruit and veg.

Just because you'd only have 4 strawberries with yoghurt doesn't mean everyone else would. For my breakfast the fruit is the main part - it is fruit topped with yoghurt rather than yoghurt topped with fruit. So the cereal bowl is filled with fruit and then some yoghurt is spooned on top.

I love the patronising opinions that we can't possibly know how much we're eating...

Amazes me that people don't eat 5 a day as long as no major money pressures. It is pretty easy if two are fruit, then one veg at lunch and two at dinner.

Are people sure they’re having a full portion in these figures? In the yogurt and berries example above that would be 7 strawberries, 4 tablespoons blueberries and 20 raspberries for 3 portions. I earn well and prioritise food but I just couldn’t afford that daily.

I use a combination of fresh fruit and veg and frozen.
Most work days I’ll have Bircher for breakfast, a Buddha bowl for lunch and a homemade meal like a ratatouille, mixed veg curry, or roasted med veg with freekah or similar. Tea is things like lentil stew, vegan moussaa Snacks are carrots with hummus or baba ganoush, or roasted grapes with labneh.
Frozen veg is really good value for money as you only use what you need.

Yes, if I want berries when they aren't growing in the garden I buy frozen ones. Not keen on frozen strawberries but blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants etc are all good.

My breakfast is a whole cereal bowl of berries topped with yoghurt, so easily 2-3 portions. Lunch salad will contain a couple of big handfuls of lettuce, 8 cherry tomatoes, 1/4 of a cucumber. 1/2 an avocado, 1/2 a red pepper, some red onion and some olives, so again easily 2-3 portions. Dinner might be something like a chilli or lasagne with half a tin of tomatoes, half an onion, half a courgette, 1/4 of a large aubergine, 1/4 tin of red kidney beans actually in the dish and then a generous side salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber.

It's not patronising to say a lot of people aren't eating full portions because this volume is very expensive, to eat that every day would cost a lot of money. Doesn't mean they aren't getting good nutrients and a good diet.

But people are literally responding to people listing what they eat and basically calling us liars.

I am relatively financially comfortable, and I prioritise eating well. I also have a garden where I grow things like berries, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, peas, courgettes, aubergines, carrots, beetroot, peppers, spinach, squash... I freeze a lot of the surplus of things that freeze well such as beans and berries. I eat what's in season, whether it is from the garden or bought from the supermarket/farmers market, which also keeps cost down.

I can fully understand that not everyone can afford to eat berries every day and not everyone has a garden to grow them. But I'm also not lying about what I eat and I do know what 80g looks like.

Yes, it’s rare if I don’t.

I usually have 3 portions of fruit, usually for breakfast with granola and one as a snack.
Tend to have lots of veggies for tea but also in salads.

@actiongirl1978 - good thinking. I try and cram as many different plants into my lunchtime salad as possible. Livens it up and takes the pressure off dinner.

I think I probably underestimate my portions, looking at that NHS link - I would never have just two slices of mango, I would eat a whole one, similarly I think 5 cm of cucumber is about half what I would have.

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I think the portion size makes it difficult to achieve. Instead I've switched to 30 plants per week. So servings of less than 80g counts as long as there's 30 different things. I make my own bread so I have whole meal flower, brown linseeds, golden linseeds, black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds (so that's 8). Then I might have half a pepper one day and a courgette another day as part of a sandwich topping. A handful of peas, a handful of sweet corn, a handful of spinach etc. chucked into dinner, it's much easier. One of my favourite ways to get my 30 points is with little shelf-stable pots of chopped fruit for breakfast or dessert.

Yes always, even on days when I don't think L've eaten especially well today for example - there was a hot dog for lunch and quite a bit of cake however;

A baby satsuma with my coffee 1st thing (1/2)
At least 4-5 strawberies whilst sorting out the Elizabeth cup cakes (1/2)
Also some cucumber whilst making the pims mix (again 1/2?)
Lunch:
Sausage in a bun with fried onions ( 1/4?)
Rest of plate was salad (lettuce, olives, sweet corn, a few cherry tomartoes, more cucumber) so at least 1 maybe 1.5 ?
Cupcake with strawberries (I would say 7 so 1)
Midafternoon no bake protien flapjack thing I made (almond butter, cranberries, oats, cho chips- maybe 1/4-1/2?)
Dinner;
Tagine made with tinned tomatoes, dried apricots, chick peas, sweet potato, aubergine, onions and garlic) It filled half the plate and I went back for 2nds so at least 2.

So not a great day, rather a lot of white carbs, too much sugar. But at least 5 (I think more like 6)

Definitely we are veggie in the week plus love fruit!

Yes, easily

Yes, and more

I certainly eat a wide variety of fruit and veg daily but I know that eg when I put cucumber in my sandwich I’m not putting a full ‘portion’ of it in there. So although I eat 5 types of fruit and veg in a day I doubt I’m eating the recommended amounts.
Not that I actually care about the guidelines or whatever this is. I’m not going to start upping my intake!

Often but not always.

Today:
2 bananas for breakfast
1 with lunch
Tomatoes in lunch
Strawberries as lunch 'dessert'
Apple as snack
Carrot as snack

Yes. And that's a minimum really, that guideline.

Not always, no. Some days I have 1, some days I have 10
I batch cook a lot as live alone and try and cram as much veg into stuff as I can - so chilli would have tinned tomatoes, onion, peppers, black beans, celery.. whatever I can get in it!

My breakfast is always the same so I get a portion from that (banana and porridge)
Summer I eat a lot of salads and use the 80g bag of salad leaves as a base, and I eat strawberries like they're going out of fashion in season

Most days but not do much when I need to go food shopping and we are low on stuff

I'm a bit off fruit, but yes, well over the five. Apparently only a tiny percentage of people do eat the recommended level of fruits and vegetables...

healthsurvey.hscic.gov.uk/data-visualisation/data-visualisation/explore-the-trends/fruit-vegetables.aspx

As in all things Mumsnet is an (middle class) echo chamber.