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?

Does a smoothie not only count as 1 though?

Yes a smoothie only counts as one, as do puréed soups for the same reason i.e. too much sugar, not enough fibre when things are blended.

Is it only one if you put in 3 different fruits and one veg?

It’s only one regardless of how many things are in it, or how many of them you have (5 smoothies a day is still only one portion). The point of 5 a day is to get the benefit of the fibre as much as anything else.

Like I put in about 20 blueberries, 5 strawberries, 1 banana and 2 handfuls of spinach

That still counts as one @OverTheRainbow88

Smoothies are the work of the devil in terms of tooth enamel.

@WinterAndRoughWeather

Oh man!!

I wish I didn’t know this now 🤣

Yeah, life’s a bitch @OverTheRainbow88. You can’t win.

You sure can’t!! I think I will still give them to the boys though and myself as surely it’s got to be better than nothing!

I don’t know, I hate smoothies so this isn’t my dilemma. I like texture in my food.

I can't eat any citrus fruit/strawberries/banana. The only fruit I can eat is apple/pear. So that's limiting itself!
I try to have veg and salad with lunch and dinner but I doubt I get 5 full portions a day. Tbh I don't worry about it.

I don't think it matters how you get your fruit and veg in you, soups, smoothies, raw, cooked, frozen. The more colourful your diet the better.
I recommend watching Super Juice Me on YouTube for anyone who wants to see the what eating fruit and veg can do to the body and our heath.. I was lucky enough to spend a week at the retreat where it's filmed and meet Jason Vale who is big in the world of juicing. He's a great guy and his books and recipes are very good.

It does matter if you’re relying on smoothies and juices - they are usually very high in sugar. That’s why fruit can only be two of the five a day.

Nope, it's a very rare occasion I do, like once a month maybe
We eat to our tastes, not to some appointed target

I definitely manage five, normally 6-7 most days. My meals look like this:

Breakfast - porridge with fruit (raspberries today), plus a glass of fruit juice - 2x portions.
Lunch - Normally a bagel/sandwich with veggies - yesterday was cucumber, pepper and tomatoes - 3x portions.
Dinner - yesterday I had a baked potato with mushrooms and beans - 2x portions (as potatoes don't count).

Seven portions in total. My snacks were cheesies (popped cheese which is incredibly addictive) plus pumpkin seeds.

That's a pretty normal day for me, really.

We aim for ten a day. We eat veg at every meal. Snacks tend to be fruit and nuts. Most of my shop is vegetables.

We view pasta as nutrient-deficient junk food so tend more towards Quinoa, bulgar, new potatoes, baked potatoes, mashed with skins potatoes, and brown rice.

The children are used to colourful nutrient dense home made meals so if I ever gave them "beige food" they'd think I'd lost my mind.

We don't eat meat, dairy, crisps, fizzy drinks or squash or much nutritionally depleted processed food so there's room on the plate for veg. I do buy baked beans, margarine, tinned soups, tinned fish, and jam, marmite, peanut butter, hummus, dried fruit and soya milk, and we have pasta or noodles sometimes.

Guest children eat a ton of veg and astonish their parents when it's served in the form of a stir fry with noodles and katsu curry sauce and they are surrounded by my kids all chomping enthusiastically like it's the biggest treat EVER.

@Nosuchluck

I don't think it matters how you get your fruit and veg in you, soups, smoothies, raw, cooked, frozen. The more colourful your diet the better. I recommend watching Super Juice Me on YouTube for anyone who wants to see the what eating fruit and veg can do to the body and our heath.. I was lucky enough to spend a week at the retreat where it's filmed and meet Jason Vale who is big in the world of juicing. He's a great guy and his books and recipes are very good.

The recommended daily "allowance" for fruit juice or smoothies per day is tiny - just 150ml for an adult. Most people will drink at least double that in a normal glass, if not more.

So yes, you can have a small glass of juice per day, but having a different flavour of juice with each meal, for example, doesn't mean you're having three portions. Fruit juice is one portion a day.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day-what-counts/

I think it's easy but you need to think of biscuits, crisps, chocolate and cakes as having no place in your daily diet. I have 2 servings of fruit at breakfast (usually a banana and a serving of frozen mixed berries cooked with maple syrup and served with greek yogurt) then grapes or an apple for a mid morning snack, probably 1-2 servings of veg as part of lunch plus a serving of dried fruit for pudding (a pudding like fruit crumble would give you as much fruit but I prefer to have regular snacks). Something like a handful of habas friteas or wasabi peas or fresh fruit or veg sticks plus hummus for an afternoon snack then for tea 1-2 servings of veg in my main course plus fruit for pudding (dried or tinned). That's ~9 servings of fruit or veg (80g fresh or 30g dried) in a day. I poo very regularly!

I probably manage it most days. Salad for lunch, a banana or other fruit, some fruit juice and more veg with the evening meal. I do better the days I work when I have no snacks to hand and take lunch with me. It's easier to exert self-discipline on yourself 4 hours down the track than on yourself now with a kitchen full of food in front of you.

Normally a bagel/sandwich with veggies - yesterday was cucumber, pepper and tomatoes - 3x portions

I would say that is one portion, even though three different things because you couldn't get enough in a sandwich for three portions. I think it is still healthy though, because you are having a variety of things, and personally I think that is more important than the "portion" per day.

I do think it's ridiculous when people claim their lettuce in a sandwich as one if their five a day. Have you tried to fit 80g of lettuce in a sandwich? That's practically a whole bag of salad leaves!

@ChavvySexPond

Impressive! I may send my kids over for a week 😊

@mynameiscalypso

Does the lettuce in a Big Mac burger count?!

@OverTheRainbow88 Definitely, that's totally different. And the gherkin counts as another one too 👍🏻