To shout is loud from the rooftops, potatoes do could as one of your 5 a day

[Margiemar]

In the report they decided to say they didn't purely because they thought some people would eat chips and crisps and think they are healthy.

A baked or boiled potato contains many vitamins and minerals and so is really part of your 5 a day

Totally agree with LaurieMarlow: "From a marketing POV, it is a great campaign. People like certainty & clear goals - 'eat loads of fruit & veg' is much too vague - wouldn't have made anything like the impact."

The NHS are trying to convey a simple message to millions of people, some of whom will already have excellent nutritional awareness (hence '5 a day' seeming patronising) and some of whom will have zero. Like Margiemar, I know people who eat one portion of veg a day and think that's totally sufficient. The NHS gets a lot of stick, but it has to be pragmatic. People often distort messages to suit their own habits, or just ignore them entirely if they seem too harsh or convoluted.

'Eat 7 portions of veg a day' --> never going to happen, why bother at all?
'Eat 3 portions of veg a day' --> so probably 1 would do.
'Potatoes count towards your portions if...' --> chips are fine, then.
'... as part of a balanced diet...' --> nearly everyone thinks they eat a balanced diet, on the whole. It's like having good taste and a great sense of humour.
'... in moderation...' --> hopelessly relative measure, generally received as 'consume nine-tenths of your normal portion and congratulate yourself on such forbearance'.

And if the message isn't 100% consistent, then fuck it all. They're always making shit up, just to annoy me! Last decade, it was 'eat 8 portions of veg', and now it's 'eat 4'. The information is therefore completely useless.

It's really easy to pick apart and deride almost every piece of advice the NHS gives, but considering the psychology of trying to mass-market nutritional advice and actually affect people's behaviour, they have an almost impossible job.

You are right that potatoes are a vegetable, but they don't count as one of the NHS' "five a day" because the dieticians that came up with this target assumed that most British people eating a normal diet would have potatoes every day anyway. If we wanted to include potatoes in the tally, we'd have to aim for 6/7 a day.

As a PP said, in Australia the target is 7 because they do include potatoes. In other countries, it's higher. The main thing is to be eating veg and fruit regularly, as part of every meal.

Now...can I interest you in my campaign to get wine and cider reclassified?! After all, if a glass of grape juice or apple juice count as one of your five a day, why don't wine and cider? There is the same amount of vitamins/minerals. The only difference is that some of the sugar in the juice has turned into alcohol.

Chocolate oranges count yes?

Don't forget dark chocolate Bounty bars.

Don't forget dark chocolate Bounty bars.

Ooh yes, all those antioxidants and the superfood of the moment that is all things coconut related.

A bit like Nutella, with all that lovely cocoa, nuts and milk but don't mention the sugar and vegetable oil that features at the top of the ingredients list.

5 a day was invented by the Californian Fruit Growers Association as twice as much as the average american eats.
There is no research that says 5 (or any number) are too high, too low or the right amount.

Nichnamenoname Now we are talking . I'll join your campaign!

Surely mushrooms are not vegetables. Vegetables are plants and a mushroom is not a plant. It's some kind of disgusting fungal growth. Can you tell I don't like them?

In what way are chips not a legitimate veg? Genuine question.