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.

I remain unconvinced that a dessert after every meal is a healthy option even if it contains fruit (plus I'm not a big fruit fan)

But as I said this is probably a better day. I'm not too fussed about meeting the target but I know other people consider I eat very healthily and they'll just consider it totally unrealistic to aim for 7.

As an aside, some countries allow you to count potatoes

For those of you that are interested in reading the full research study here it is.

jech.bmj.com/content/early/2014/03/03/jech-2013-203500.full

I know its hard as not everyone as fruit and veg shop on doorstep we have 2 up local high street one cheaper than other where can get

4gigantic baking potatoes for £1
strawberries 59p small punnet or 2 for £1
mine love grapes and that can work out pricy.
kids really not keen on salad type items i do try usually ends up wasted.
Most of veg is frozen or tinned

Aldis not as cheap as used to be same with lils.

I miss living near food markets then can get some amazing bargains end of day.

farmfoods fab frozen veg as lots stuff 3 for 2

i get steamfresh bags mixed veg
serve pes or sweetcorn
frozen corn on cob
used frozen cauli/broccoli make cheese bake.

I thourght frozen retained more vitamins.

fruit juice -1portion but kids dentist gives me lectures on givig them fruit as snacks and juice as bad for their teeth.

feel like cant win will keep doing what im doing and add veg at eery opportunity.

Veg is by far the cheapest part of my grocery bill. We eat around 9-10 serves a day each, but vegetables only costs us about £25 a week. It could easily be half that if we cut out things like asparagus and kale and went with more basic veg, and bought more frozen.

If you are only eating a couple of serves and you add in another 3 or 4, then presumably you'll be able to cut back on something else, probably meat, which isn't exactly cheap either. And cheap carbs do add up, especially when they're the main meal and not just a side.

I'm always surprised when people say vegies aren't filling, I find them extremely filling. They don't give me that heavy 'full' feeling like a big bowl of pasta would, but they satiate my hunger for much, much longer, whereas a meal made up primarily of white carbs leaves me feeling stuffed for an hour or two and then absolutely ravenous.

" I'm not convinced it's devoid of nutrition,"

it's not devoid of nutrition but the general rule is that the brighter and darker a veg is the more nutritious it is, therefore spinach leaves better choice for salad than iceberg.

Thanks for the link Binky - I tried looking for it yesterday but couldn't find it.

"I think people over-estimate. Ie a bowlful of salad is ONE portion, not lots as you might think.

2inches of cucumber is a portion, not a few slices.
16 button mushrooms is a portion - so a mushroom risotto might not even have a whole "portion" each in it"

Thats completely illogical. What if your bowl of salad has 2inches of cucumber and 16 mushrooms in it? By your logic it is both one portion and two.

There's no way I could eat 9/10 portions of veg a day 800g!

I don't really have carbs to cut either as being coeliac there's a lot I just can't eat.

A portion is surely a rough guide, no one is going to be able to measure it exactly. For example "two broccoli spears" could cover quite a wide range of actual weight of broccoli. It's just there to remind you you need to eat a reasonable quantity of the fruit or veg ie an apple, a pile of peas on your plate etc - so people don't think it counts if you had a tiny piece of rocket in your sandwich.

Ive always had the same gripe about smoothies. Apparently apple, banana, grapes are a portiom each but when exactly the same fruit are whizzed and made into a smoothie, they magically become only one portion. Is it just me who thinks the whole thing makes no sense?

Yanbu. It is very expensive!

when I said salad portions needed were large, I meant a 1 portion of lettuce is about 1/2 a lettuce not 2 leaves, a portion of cherry tomatoes is 7 tomatoes a portion of peppers is a whole pepper not 2 slices and again with cucumber it is no a few slices so there is no way the salad in a sandwich is even 1/2 a portion never mind two,

a large pasta bowl size bowl full of salad would probably be two portions, the salad accompaniment you get in most cafes etc is 1/2-1 portion max

I read bowl of salad to mean the lettuce, leafy bits.

Some people think that the amount of lettuce they put in a sandwich counts as a portion

Who could eat all of this every day, each day? So much salad makes me feel full, and in not convinced so much fruit is good for your teeth.

what about lentils and pulses? Sometime i wat a lot of them, but i cant do it 3 days running! In order to eat 7 portions of fruit and veg a day, id have to give up other stuff and id have an unbalanced diet. I'm not overweight and have plenty of energy, i thinnk illl stick to what works for my own body.

Also how about differences in size?

How come I at 5"2', need the same amount of fruit and veg as my DH whose 6"2' and built like a rugby player. It doesn't make any sense.

Yes, I'm under 8 stone and DH is over 16. Do we still need the same amount? I can't eat that much.

My bowls of salad tend to contain a wjole small lettuce a pepper, chunk of cucumber, few sticks of celery, onion and half a small tin of sweetcorn. As we're doing common sense surely that has to be more than one portiin

This is 5 portions of fruit and veg.

...unless smoothied

This is 7 portions of fruit and veg

Oh that's great Queen, thanks for posting that- it puts it into perspective.

I have salad for lunch most days, I work at home so make it myself. It's usually half a bag/bowl of mixed bagged salad, half a large avocado or a whole small one, several chopped up beetroot or half a chopped up pepper, and a whole cooked chopped sweet potato. (plus a bit of goats cheese)

I'm fairly certain I get 4. maybe 5 out of this.

From the NHS website re:smoothies

Q: Do juices and smoothies count towards my 5 A DAY?

A: One 150ml glass of unsweetened 100% fruit or vegetable juice can count as a portion. But only one glass counts, so further glasses of juice don't count towards your total 5 A DAY portions.
A smoothie containing all the edible pulped fruit or vegetable may count as more than one 5 A DAY portion, but this depends on the quantity of fruits or vegetables or juice used, as well as how the smoothie has been made.
For example, for a single smoothie to qualify as being two portions, it must contain either:
at least 80g of one variety of whole fruit and/or vegetable and at least 150ml of a different variety of 100% fruit and/or vegetable juice, or
a minimum of 80g of one variety of whole fruit and/or vegetable and at least 80g of another variety of whole fruit and/or vegetable

Stealth, yes smoothies only count as one because your breaking down the cells when you blitz them, so they don't have all the same goodness as eating the whole fruit.

Stealth - How much would that salad be tho? I just couldn't justify costing the family that amount for my lunch every day. 1 pepper alone is about 80p.

Half a tin of beans and 2 slices of bread are about 40p. which is my lunch today.