Do you get your 5 a day or more?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I find it difficult to hit this target every day tbh. Today it's easy because I'm making vegetarian chilli for dinner and will likely have two platefuls.

Other than that, today I've eaten a cheese sandwich and a bowl of olives. So if, for example, tonight's dinner was salmon and asparagus - then I wouldn't get 5 portions today.

I like all fruit and veg just struggle with quantity required to hit the daily target, plus only eat fruit a couple of times a week because I have type 1 diabetes and it frequently is very difficult to dose insulin for without causing a spike or a drop.

So - how do you manage it?

I generally eat more than 5 different types of fruit and veg but as a portion is supposed to be 80g I can't honestly say I have 400g worth each day.

I am trying to increase it though.

I struggle because I only really eat one meal a day. I'm not someone who can constantly eat. Luckily, more often than not, my one meal a day is a wholemeal wrap packed high with veggies and salami, so over all, I'm not doing perfect but I'm not likely to drop dead of scurvy either.

Probably not at the moment because, in all honesty, I can't afford it! I live alone so it's just me eating most of the time and the fresh stuff just goes off too quickly. I don't like most frozen or canned fruit & veg as I find the quality suffers and they usually end up squishy and gross 🤢

I don't really like sweet stuff in the morning, and very rarely eat breakfast (only on my days off when I have time to cook something), don't snack, and I don't have anything like a blender to try and make smoothies to get some more in. Today I've probably had 2 😞 I would like to have more but seem to struggle to find the time and opportunities to fit them in!

Apparently smoothies (and presumably blended soups) only count for one of the five anyway, no matter how much fruit / veg you put in them.

Also I think 'portion sizes' are a lot bigger than people assume so actually sometimes when people think they are getting 8-10 portions in a day because they are eating a small amount of lots of different things, they really aren't! Myself included, something the variety is good but I just can't physically fit 3/4 portions of veg in one meal 😂

@Fieldofgreycorn

But ten portions is almost a kilo of veg a day - how is that supposed to be fit into a normal day’s eating?

The article you linked to has all these ideas but they’re for individual meals, which you can’t have ten of a day. It should be an article that explains how and when we’re supposed to consume all this veg.

I get 8 to 10, don't find it difficult but I'm a health freak🍠🥕🍅🥝
I also live alone but I batch cook so the veggies dont go off

Haven't RTDT. I chose to follow the Japanese guidance. Aim for 8 small portions of different fruit and veg. Much more manageable. The only reason it's fine, is because they didn't want to scare the general public with too large of a number. So, instead, they went with a lower number and buffet portions. I bet you could do 8 small portions by having an apple, orange, banana as a snack. Add some salad and spinach to your sandwich. Have a side of fried savoy cabbage or green beans with your chilli. Eat some hummus with a carrot. M, 8 small portions.....
Check out there book, How Not To Die. Great read.....

I do. More than. Today I've had blueberries and raspberries with breakfast, a banana post workout, lunch involved spinach, cucumber, avocado, onion, watercress, red pepper and carrot, dinner had courgette, aubergine, mushroom, celery, onion, tomato, kidney beans, sweetcorn, asparagus. Oh and an apple. And a kiwi fruit.

That's pretty normal for me. I eat loads of veg and some fruit. I'm vegetarian and bulk out everything with extra veg.

I don't eat much fruit other than a banana with my breakfast and a little dried fruit in my muesli. I usually make half my plate veg, though. For lunch, today, I had a pack of chorizo bits that needed using, so made a stew with them and onion, tomato, pointed red pepper, Cannellini beans and a load of paprika and chives, mopped up with some grainy bread. 3 portions, right there.

And yes, our 5 a day is about a pound of fruit and veg.

@ShowOfHands

That’s not dissimilar to what we eat - big mixed salads etc, but there’s no way each of the items in our salads is 80g worth. We’d be eating it out of mixing bowls.

I’ve just always assumed the guidance is to try to get people to eat more variety and that the amounts aren’t as important as the ratio of them in the diet.

But then I wonder the same about things like minerals and vitamins. You read these articles that say things like “just half an avocado gives you a whopping 15% of your daily potassium!”. But I’m not scoffing enough of anything to get the amount of potassium that’s supposedly required, despite eating healthily and being a big eater. It’s not like we’re picking at a single lettuce leaf of an evening.

I don’t get it. Iron’s another one - I feel like I’d have to have liver or blood sausage with every meal to get enough from diet alone, so I supplement.

It's rare not to - e.g. often have spinach with eggs with breakfast, lunch might be an omelette with veg in it and with salad or green beans, fruit for snacks (and crisps ) and two types of veg at supper time. But then we really like vegetables more than meat so we often have vegetarian meals.

[quote WinterAndRoughWeather]@ShowOfHands

That’s not dissimilar to what we eat - big mixed salads etc, but there’s no way each of the items in our salads is 80g worth. We’d be eating it out of mixing bowls.

I’ve just always assumed the guidance is to try to get people to eat more variety and that the amounts aren’t as important as the ratio of them in the diet.

But then I wonder the same about things like minerals and vitamins. You read these articles that say things like “just half an avocado gives you a whopping 15% of your daily potassium!”. But I’m not scoffing enough of anything to get the amount of potassium that’s supposedly required, despite eating healthily and being a big eater. It’s not like we’re picking at a single lettuce leaf of an evening.

I don’t get it. Iron’s another one - I feel like I’d have to have liver or blood sausage with every meal to get enough from diet alone, so I supplement.[/quote]
I know exactly what you mean! I try to make sure dd and I eat well - we mostly avoid eating things that are processed and devoid of vitamins etc - but I still wonder how we can possibly be getting enough iron, calcium, etc...

Yes always but aim for more as obviously more time spent at home and less eating out because of Covid. Not sure as to portion control as tend to mix it up with lots of small portions of different foods throughout and daily. 5 is so easy to do if you stay in! Admittedly still eat some crap/junk too unfortunately but "make up" for it with some super foods and inspiration from Joanna Soh amongst many others online these days eg:

5 Super Drinks to BOOST Immune System (Drink every morning!) | Joanna Soh

Does anyone happen to also believe if vitamin D and zinc is good for Covid protection as many say? Eg:

www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/treatments-for-covid-19

I am not really a fruit person but I like vegetables. I probably do get 5 a day but I don't keep track.

Yes, but I’m a vegan who likes vegetables so it’s easy. I don’t really eat any fruit though

Ditto.

This book is really good. It was suggested on a similar thread here a while ago:
10 a Day the Easy Way

Yeah i reckon so. Salad for lunch and vegetarian dinners here mostly so I reckon 5-7 portions of veg and fruit a day.

God, no. Sometimes I'll feel virtuous as I'll maybe hit 5 portions but usually it's 3 or 4 - a few grapes, an apple, brocolli/peas, etc.

Fruit and veg is just so tedious!

I usually get more than 5. I have a bowl of fruit for breakfast topped with yoghurt and nuts.
Banana mid-morning.
Vegetable soup or a sandwich with credited and hummus or a jacket potato and salad for lunch.
Often another piece of fruit mid afternoon.
I'm veggie so dinner unusually involves at least 3 vegetables and often a pulse of some sort which always counts. Often fruit and yoghurt for pudding.
I often have an apple with a piece of cheese and some nuts or raisins for a snack in the evening.

That makes my diet sound super-healthy! I do eat cakes, chocolate, ice cream fairly often too but unless it's the day before a supermarket trip and we're running low on fresh stuff then I do find it easy to get at least 5 a day, probably more like about 8.

In the salmon and asparagus example you gave if I was making a protein plus veg type meal I'd do 3 or 4 different vegetables with that, not just one.

Easily. Dh and I are 90% veggie and both love vegetables. Tonight I'm making courgette, carrot and feta fritters, and will serve asparagus, sugarsnaps and tenderstem broccoli with it.
Salad for lunch of some description, plus 4-5 portions of fruit. I eat a punnet of tomatoes daily as a snack.

Have to say I do find it quite easy tbh. Breakfast usually sourdough with sliced banana, lunch is often an omelette with lots of sliced peppers or spring onion, spinach etc. And sliced avacado on the side. Then dinner salmon with broccoli green beans and tomatoes. That is a good day but I aim for that four days of the week.. sometimes a takeaway night or a quick ham sandwich for lunch instead, I dont fret about it but definitely feel better with veg filled diet.

I probably average 1-2 per day.