To think that the vast majority of people can't afford or won't buy 7 portions of fruit and veg a day

[LaurieFairyCake]

After listening to the debate on radio 5 yesterday Richard Bacon was making the point that it was easy as the portions were small.

No, they're really, really not!

I've just looked at the Daily Mail run down of how much you have to eat and I think it's actually prohibitive financially.

2 nectarines,
3 heaped tablespoons of sweetcorn,
Quarter of a big broccoli or cauliflower,
3 heaped tablespoons of mangetout
7 spears of asparagus
Half a pepper

All one portion

Seriously no one can afford that. In Aldi it's only 4 spears in a portion to buy for 79p so I need £1.60 to buy one portion of asparagus - obviously I wouldn't as I'm not an eejit.

Eating seasonally not so easy either as you can only get your nutrition from one thing twice in a day. So only two apples.

I reckon shopping in Aldi I'm going to need to spend about £8 a day for a family of 3 adult eaters for fruit and veg. So that's £56 a week just on fruit and veg.

Nicky I'm sorry but you're post has made me laugh.

In fact, if you are a non-smoker you are actually more likely to die if you are eating 7 portions a day.

Isn't death the only thing that in life is guaranteed to happen and that no matter what you do you WILL die?

I don't think it's unmanageable to aim to eat 7 portions of fruit and veg.

I'm pregnant and this week I have only eaten pasta with parmesan cheese and drunk grapefruit juice but usually we have lots of vegetables in our diet.

I always cook more parsnips than potatoes when doing a roast, they are much tastier in my opinion. We add carrot to everything. Lots of our meals are at least half vegetables, vegetable curry, vegetable stew ( with a little meat, roast vegetables and roast pork, we use seasonal vegetables and it isn't that expensive, the thing we buy most of in our weekly shop is carrots.

Ds is a fruit and vegetable fiend, I worry he doesn't eat enough meat and protein ( apart from pasta) I think it's probably cheaper feeding him on fruit and veg than buying him kid food like special organic kid snacks and pouches of pure.

In fact, if you are a non-smoker you are actually more likely to die if you are eating 7 portions a day.

Eh? Surely if that were true they would not be telling us all to "increase to 7 a day" since the majority of people now are non-smokers? More likely to die than what?

I saw this in the study:
When the analysis was restricted to never smokers, the association between total portions of fruit and vegetables consumed and all-cause mortality was similar to that in the whole study population although the benefits at seven+ portions appeared diminished.

Which means the benefits are less pronounced if you've never smoked (in other words you're more likely to be more healthy anyway so it has less of an obvious effect maybe)

Or does it say somewhere that eating 7 a day is actually associated with increased mortality if you've never smoked? If it said that, surely that would be the headline!

However, I do think the study in general is unclear and not brilliantly written. For example:

benefits seen in up to 7+ portions daily

In other words you get benefits from less than 7 portions, 7 portions, or 7+ portions. Not exactly clarifying much.

A pp mentioned melons being 1 or evem 2 each and turning to mush after three days...

Aldi.
Cantaloupe - 89p
Honeydew - 1.39

So if 1/10 melon is one portion, thats 20 portions of fruit for 2.28.

I buy these every week and take a bit of each chopped up to work each day. I usually have both used up in 5 working days without mould. Keep in the fridge.

Is that really the case about melon? i assumed 1/4 would be a portion. 1/10 is amazing - will defo stock up on canteloupes :)

It doesn't matter how many potions there are in a melon, they are foul tasting lumps of mush.

Yes, I would have assumed a portion of melon was around a 1/4.

water melons yes, honeydew (are they the rugby ball shaped yellow ones?) yes, canteloupes (are they the ones with the lovely almost floral dark orange flesh?) NOOO! they are lovely :)

Melon is boooring but nice in a fruit salad. Fortunately the DC like it, though.

according to the NHS a portion of melon is a 5cm slice.

TheLadyRadishes

In the results from the study it shows the hazard ratio for those who never smoked and ate 5-6 portions being 0.72. This is compared to those who had zero portions.

The hazard ratio for those eating 7+ portions was 0.77 ie higher. However, the 95% CI intervals did overlap so this result is not statistically significant:-

jech.bmj.com/content/early/2014/03/03/jech-2013-203500/T2.expansion.html

Whoever thought up this 7 a day needs brain surgery. The best I can do is three or four a day

However, I do think the study in general is unclear and not brilliantly written. For example:

benefits seen in up to 7+ portions daily

In other words you get benefits from less than 7 portions, 7 portions, or 7+ portions. Not exactly clarifying much.

That is very much the point I was trying to make. The report shaowed that even 1 or 2 portions is beneficial and there is a massive difference when it gets up to 3 or 4 portions.

Isn't death the only thing that in life is guaranteed to happen and that no matter what you do you WILL die?

Of course, to be precise I should have said ''more likely to die within any particular time period''

Thanks nicky that's kind of what I reasoned- surely 5 veggies in particular is much better than nothing.

I shall carry on with 5 as that's what the children count as well as I have been trying to raise their awareness of why it is important to eat fruit and veg not just because I say so, but because it's good for digestion/keeps you regular/good for your body and so on. Sounds daft but I have one child who would eat no vegetables at all if I didn't insist on one per meal.

I agree Expat @14:48:00 !

Gives an idea of portion sizes

www.nhs.uk/Livewell/5ADAY/Documents/Downloads/5ADAY_portion_guide.pdf

Talking about portion sizes. This report was based on a large scale analysis that has been running for many years. This is what they currently refer to as a portion size:-

cereal bowl of salad
heaped tablespoon of pulses
heaped tablespoon of fresh, frozen or tinned veg excluding potatoes
quarter pint/150ml fruit juice
fresh fruit depends on size of fruit
heaped tablespoon dried fruit
heaped tablespoon tinned or frozen fruit
heaped tablespoon of a dish made mainly from fruit eg fruit salad, fruit pie

So, when this report talks about portions, the above is what they are talking about:-

jech.bmj.com/content/suppl/2014/03/04/jech-2013-203500.DC1/jech-2013-203500supp1.pdf

errol - yes I know a bowl of soup is likely to be nearer 2 than 1 portion but I now try to be relatively conservative in my counting. I used to overinflate like crazy - e.g. my 10 veg chilli, I'd be congratulating myself on eating 10 portions in one sitting, which was clearly bollocks as nobody would eat 800g of veg chilli in one go, however yummy. At least if I'm conservative and get to 5 then I know it's at least 5 and because I don't track what I eat religiously then it also means I can be fairly confident that I'm not thinking I'm being healthier than I am.

Exactly Corus - I find it much easier to eat a variety of fruit and veg now that I have a DH and 2 small DCs than I did when I was living on my own, and hopefully as they get bigger and DC3 arrives we'll be able to do even more of that. When I lived alone, if I wanted variety then it would likely mean there'd be soggy waste a few days later so I'd just stick to broccoli, carrots and tinned corn most of the time to avoid wastage. It was dull. It's no coincidence that I've become more interested in cooking as a bigger variety has become more possible.

My problem with fruit is that with most, there's about one day in their life where they're perfect to eat. Melon is either hard and tasteless or almost alcoholic unless you eat it on its perfect day. Kiwis hang around being rock hard for ages in our fruit bowl then turn to mush within hours of being ripe enough. And don't get me started on bananas which are only perfect for about 10 minutes :)

Veg has much more tolerance around it - a carrot or squash lasts ages and even something like spinach has a few days life in it.

Pears also have a window of eating opportunity which seems to be minutes long. Rock hard or mush. Plums too.

Bananas usually get turned into a loaf when over ripe so i don't mind that too much.

God yes pears are bastards. When they're perfectly ripe they're probably my favourite fruit, but to catch them at the right moment would basically involve being on full-time non-stop pear watch.