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.

Well obviously it's expensive if you choose to eat raspberries and other expensive and delicate out of season fruit. Buy in season and/or buy frozen FFS.

Try bananas and apples for your fruit.
Frozen peas, broad beans, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower etc.
Tinned sweet corn, tinned tomatoes.

3 tablespoons is really not a lot of peas or sweet corn anyway.

And why the surprise that it's 2 clematines as 1 portion? They are super small compared to an orange!

I do grow some (allotment) but what I'm taking issue with is the size of these portions.

The actual cost if you stick to the guidelines as cheap as you can is probably £5 a day.

I'd be interested to see if anyone can offer cost suggestions within the guidelines given that are cheaper than that.

Hummus is easy to make from tinned chick peas, which you can buy cheaply. I wouldn't have that much at once but if you have it with a bit of salad, a few olives etc cumulatively you get a decent amount.

Don't think prescriptively.

When I add veg to meals I don't really think in terms of portions, I certainly don't measure. I just think, add more veg, some is better than none and a little more is better than not much.

Eg at dinner I cut down on servings of pasta and add an additional type of veg - no idea if it's 80g or not though.

The article I read said 2 florets of broccoli or cauliflower was a portion. That seemed shockingly small to me. There seems to be a lack of consistency over what constitutes a portion

Given I make400g of hummus with one time of chickpeas that seems about right. I eat it as easy protein rather than count it as veg though (although of course its both).

Its not compulsory, if you feel the hassle isn't worth it for you then don't bother but why dispute that other people do it?

We certainly have a whole roast parsnip (or two) each along with other veg for our Sunday roast, its how you make the meat (expensive part) last for other meals.

I'm going to weigh the salad i have in my sarnie and report back after lunch!

I'm pretty sure the salad i make to take to work for lunch would be at leadt two portions.

My mum adds a couple of handfuls of mixed frozen veg to everything like bolognaise, chilli, curry. Every little helps!

YABU to get any "medical" info from the daily mail. They are notorious for crap health and science reporting. Probably because they still believe in witches.

There is a link to the report in the thread under Discussions of the Day.

They counted in frozen and tinned fruit together (and found a negative effect) and don't mention frozen VEG that I could see.

I thought it was rather unfair on frozen fruit to lump it in with syrupy tinned stuff!

I heard this reported on the radio. It definitely said that tinned and frozen did not count. This made me a bit because I rely on them to keep our numbers up.

Actually that's exactly the point I'm making, that the majority of people don't do it as the portions are too big now.

I know I don't have to do it, that's not what we're talking about. The question is about cost and whether it's prohibitive. Which I think it is given the new portion sizes.

A whole 75g bag of watercress is about a quid - and it's only one portion.

I'm not saying people have to eat asparagus and watercress, I'm saying it's hard to follow the guidelines in a way that's affordable and fairly difficult to eat the portion sizes - I don't think I've ever eaten a whole bag of watercress on my own

I was reading something yesterday and a portion seemed huge to me - e.g. 8 sprouts, 1 leek, 8 spring onions

You can make endless soups with seasonal vegetables (eg in English winter: carrots, leeks, parsnips, onions, potatoes) that really aren't expensive or difficult.

I don't think it's hard to get seven portions. And I am on a budget, feeding a house of eight (four children) and we usually have fresh veg.

I have a fruit bowl that's filled every other day with apples, bananas, grapes, pears, satsumas, and in the summer peaches, nectarines and plums.

When making a shepards pie I use probably four types of veg in with the meat at least. Plus I add swede to the mash. And I usually serve with a green veg of some description. I probably use 7 portions in one meal!

I don't agree that veg has to cost the earth. Look for the deals.

And I reckon I have two roasted parsnips with my Sunday lunch!

I think realistically most people won't achieve this and fruit and veg are generally pretty expensive these days. But with baked beans, home made hummus, eating in season and buying frozen veg it is doable.

I just wish more people were interested in or able to grow more of their own veg because nutritionally and environmentally that is the best thing, and it's very cheap too. It was really eye opening visiting Italy a few years ago. Anyone who had even the tiniest garden was growing tomatoes and kale and cabbages etc. I even saw driveways with veg growing around the cars.

Not all tinned fruit is in syrup though, what about when its in juice?
A bag of frozen spinach, broccoli etc costs about the1. Tinned tomatoes also very cheap. Watercress is as bad an example as asparagus imo.

See I always thought I was doing fine, when I make bologneses it includes onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms but now I've seen the portion sizes I think one portion of bolognese only contains one portion of veg.

I don't think the cost is the problem, don't think I could physically eat all the veg required.

Those portion sizes do seem massive!

I think we do alright - I don't keep count though.

Before we had children the fruit bowl contents consisted of polo mints/car keys/paper clips/DH's rizla and filters....

I bloody hate fruit

When making a shepards pie I use probably four types of veg in with the meat at least. Plus I add swede to the mash. And I usually serve with a green veg of some description. I probably use 7 portions in one meal!

I think the point the OP is making is that you can assume you are having 7 portions but you are not, as what you are having is nowhere near what the recommended portion size is now said to be.

Op, I'm with you, it's bloody expensive and on some of the websites such as feed your children for £50, there's little fresh fruit in them at all, bar perhaps cheap apples. They discuss this openly- if you have a bowlful of fruit on the table at all times, that £5-10 of your shop a week and in my case the children often don't eat them all before they go a bit manky.

It's ok if you live near a cheap shop like Aldi, or near a market and can go at the end of the day- you can fill a whole shopping trolly for about a tenner. Many people who are poorer though live in areas without good access to these shops (or don't have a car). Look up 'food deserts' I know of one quite near here where you would be really stuck if you wanted to eat ok fruit and veg in those quantities.

The frozen veg thing is weird, I am still going for frozen for at least some of the portions.

cheminotte most fruit is in syrup and I suppose canning will get rid of vit C anyway.

The author says she thinks most people were eating tinned rather than frozen as it is more prevalent but the issue is they just don't know because they didn't distinguish between the categories.

Frozen veg wasn't mentioned.

pianodoodle I hate fruit too! Too many mouldy wrinkly apples and horrid tasting oranges as a child. Nice fruit, apart from Braeburn apples, is expensive and not usually from this country.

The report I read suggested frozen veg was ok bit not frozen fruit.