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.

Our local greengrocers has shut down
I could go to the market but by the time I've added petrol and parking it's probably 50/50
Generally I try to add veg/salad/fruit to things, so if breakfast is scrambled eggs, I eat mushrooms/spring onions/tomatoes with it

I know. Not quite sure but I guess its about that fact that sweet liquids are a bad idea in general.

Maybe if you make a rubbish smoothie, a sort of lumpiee? perhaps that counts as 1.5?

Queens, I'm glad you clarified about frozen fruit because I was beginning to wonder if all that effort I put into topping and tailing some of my giant crop of blackcurrants for freezing, every summer, was nutritionally pointless.

Under the original 5 a day guidelines, tinned fruit and veg were only ever allowed to be counted as 1 portion, in total, so that's always been recognised, anyhow.

Which is fine, each to their own buy what you want - but the pretence that fruit and veg has somehow reached such astronomical prices as to render it unaffordable has worn thin now.

I agree, to a point. And that point is probably not 7 servings per day for four adults in a household per week. Five is more realistic and affordable for us.

Many people don't buy any though, as I say, I have friends whose children eat no vegetables or fruit whatsoever and only eat bread and butter (one child) or chicken nuggets and pizza (another child) although the second child will eat grapes.

I think that public health campaigns have to be careful to be realistic (I realise the BMJ article wasn't a campaign).

Given though that the current campaign features idiotic swaps like full-fat fizzy drinks for diet drinks, butter for margarine, I won't be listening to a word the government says about food anyway.

I've lived in my 'Village' for over 10 years a shop has just opened up which sells fresh veg before that there was nothing near by. The nearest market is slowly dying, the veg is the same price or more expensive than the supermarket, meat the same. Any competition between stall holders has gone as the ones that are left have no competition, the market is filled with double glazing stalls, pet stalls or clothing. There are no 3pm reductions.

Add into that the cost of buses or parking its easier and cheaper to go the supermarket.

at lumpie

I agree that if you're in the position of thinking about how to increase the 5/day you are already eating to 7, you are fine anyway. We already eat 6 or 7 on most days.

But most people struggle to get 5, and to look at the 2 or 3 you manage (via fruit juice and tins) and see the goalpost moved even further away, is depressing. I also know children who never eat any veg whatsoever, and what little fruit they manage is almost never whole fruit.

lumpie, love it. I will try lumpie soup, too.

MrsKoala you may or may not be glad to learn (from the DM article) that half a can of baked beans actually counts as two portions, one for the beans, one for the tomato (hmmmmm).

How long before beast's joke shows up in shops with an Innocent label smacked on it?

It's a question of priorities isn't it? I wonder if people that don't buy fresh or frozen vegetables are also unable to buy biscuits, crisps, alcohol and other rubbish?

We've always had salad with our main meal in our house (a salad will include a mixture of many different vegetables, some raw, some steamed, not just leafy greens) so for me it's completely normal to include vegetables in my weekly shopping.

I don't think that is entirely fair Mistress, if you live rurally/not near markets and don't drive you would need to get a bus, which adds on a fiver to your weekly shop. And are people really going to spend every Sat traipsing round on buses, trailing their dc behind them just so they can get their 7 a day? Especially when they feel fine without it? Probably not.

eight perhaps I can retire on the royalties?

Time I can buy biscuits, crisps and other crap at any of the village shops. Only one of the local shops ever has any veg and its freshness depends on when the owner last visited Asda.

Bus fair to the nearest half decent supermarket is over £4 return. That's a big percentage of a week's shop for a lot of people.

Really Thetallest? who knew! ohhh get me and my 2 a day!

Carrots
Onions
Parsnips
Frozen peas
frozen beans
leeks
swede
rhubarb
sweet potato
broccoli
cauliflower
spring greens
cabbage

apples (basics from Sainsburys are currently Jonagold - the nicest variety IMHO)
Oranges

sorry but if you think you cannot afford good bulk vegetables, your spending priorities are wrong

Does the tomato ketchup I had on my sausage butty count as a portion? There was at least 2 tomatoes worth on there.

I shop at a Sunday market near my home. Most of my weekly budget goes on vegetables. We eat meat twice a week (a joint at the weekend, plus mince in chilli or bolognese etc once midweek), fish once and eggs/cheese on the veggie days. Vegetables at every meal.

I buy the overripe veg going cheap, plus anything seasonal at under €2.50 a kilo. I spend slightly more per kilo on fruit if it's things my kids will eat. I try to cook all the veggies the same day, while as fresh as possible, then reheat each night for dinner.

Every last bit gets used. E.g. radishes: €0.99 for a bunch. My kids love them raw for a starter and the leaves go in the vegetable soup! Same with cauliflower or broccoli leaves and stalks (they LOVE cauliflower cheese)...

Oh and my soups are often half 'lumpies' i take half out, blend it and return it to the pan to there is some texture.

My smoothies usually still have lumps in as well, but thats just because i'm crap at them, oh er, i mean, because i'm trying to retain the fibre.

If you put berries in a smoothie, the seeds don't really get blended and still provide plenty of fibre!

"hetallesttowerWed 02-Apr-14 13:22:24

MrsKoalayou may or may not be glad to learn (from the DM article) that half a can of baked beans actually counts as two portions, one for the beans, one for the tomato (hmmmmm)."

Unless of course you mash them with your fork

So a smoothie with berries is 2 portions?

Expensive as the fruit and veg are supplementary to meat products?

If they are a meal on their own - with lentils or beans - then not so crazily pricey. In fact, no doubt cheaper than a meat n two/five veg dinner.

I am at home a lot so do manage to get plenty of fruit and veg meals in. I worry more about DS who has just cereal or toast for breakfast, followed by a packed lunch of a dull sandwich - with maybe a bit of cucumber chucked in. He will perhaps grab an apple after school, but then it's up to me to make dinner which contains plenty of the veggies.

I think really it's a matter of just altering our perception of what a meal has to be like. We don't have to have a meat/fish as the main part, supplemented by vegetables. No way are we vegetarians in this house, but I cook for at least 2 meat free days per week.

I would class each glass of a smoothie as one portion, with no more than 2 identical portions of any one product per day (and therefore up to 2 glasses of smoothie would count).

Just be careful of adding apple juice etc to the smoothie, rather than 100% blended fruit!

Beastofburden I did say in my post that even if people are working etc during the week, then its easy enough to buy fruit & veg at weekends.

If working or doing school run in the week means you've no time to go to a market to buy veg - no time to hit one of the many shops that have fruit & veg in bowls outside - no time to go to a supermarket (who often reduce fruit & veg prices from around 4pm anyway, & dont close early at weekends)...then...how do you find time to do your other shopping? After all its not as if fruit & veg is cleared from the shelves at the weekend, and put back on a Monday morning...

Thing is, there are always excuses. & again, people can buy whatever they want with their money. But if you can find time at the weekends to buy non-fruit & veg items then unless fruit & veg is instantly cleared from shop shelves & markets come Friday, only to re-appear on a Monday, then..an excuse is an excuse. Working and doing the school run? Most of us have been there - it doesn't preclude anything.