Peas aren't classed as a 5 a day

[bellalou1234]

Im shocked. I've been trying to eat 5 fruit and veg per day to improve my general health only to realise peas don't count!

They only didn't include potatoes in case everyone ate chips every day and claimed they were doing 5 a day.

Potatoes are absolutely fine and a healthy food in moderation - just like lots of foods.

Peas, sweetcorn, potatoes (even the occassional portion of chips) are all fine.

I watched Food Unwrapped the other day and they said that the reason sweet potatoes counted but normal potatoes didn't was because we ate enough potatoes as a country and the whole point of 5 a day was to get people to eat more types of fruit and veg.

They said that normal potatoes and sweet potatoes are very similar nutritionally.

All we are saying, is give peas a chance

I count potatoes too. But I only ever eat a small amount (maybe half a portion) as otherwise I get carb cravings, and I need to keep my sugars stable.

They chose not to include potatoes because we already eat loads of them and the point is to increase fruit and veg intake (and they probably don’t want us to eat more chips and call them a health food). I’m not sure that’s a good strategy because potatoes are clearly more nutritious than pasta or white rice that you might eat instead.

I think other countries do include potatoes on their lists.

Exactly.

She is muddled up.

Confusing portions ( as in the number of one item) and varieties.

Conditioned/programmed into living your life by government-approved symbols?

Says a lot about the general population. Explains a lot too.

Christ, I had cold sweats there. Glad this has been cleared up.

Tim Spectre, the Zoe man, recommends you eat 30 different plants a week.30 plsnts

What?!! I always have peas.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter. My mum did the Mars bar test... "they're better for you than a bloody Mars bar so eat your chuffin peas"

Some arbitrary 5/7/10/whatever a day makes no difference to most people.

Just have some peas, eat less crap.

This thread made for a panicky read!! What a storm in a teacup!

But op in your link it says they do count but only as 1. Eg if you gave baked beans, peas and lentils it's still 1 of your 5 a day not 3. But uf you have peas, carrots and sweet potato it's 3.

Five a day relates to vegetables.

Peas are legumes (or, technically a fruit considering they contain seeds that are capable of growing into new plants).

Enjoy :D

I'm not saying it the healthiest thing to do on a reguar basis... But it is delicious!! 😋
I loooooove Älplermagronen! Potatoes, pasta, cheese... Soo good.

Hahaha well maybe think for yourself a bit 🤷🏻‍♀️

I count eggs towards my 5 a day too !
They are so good for you!

@BeyondMyWits 👍🏻 makes sense to me.

I was told that Brita get most of their vit C from potatoes.

For a minute I thought we were in green bean crisis PR territory

I didn't think anyone looked at those symbols, just thought it was patronising and odd.

@Boomboom22 Good grief no! Each of these (given the correct portion size) counts for one of the five a day.
Beans (baked or otherwise) = 1
Peas = 1
Lentils = 1
Carrots = 1
Sweet potato = 1
etc.

What???? How can this pea??!!

@dementedpixie that’s incorrect. What they mean by that is that you can’t count TWO portions of different dried fruit etc. Even if you eat raisins and dried apricots in a day, only one of the two can count. Even if you have an apple juice and an orange juice in a day, only one counts. That’s because the sugar partially counteracts the goodness. This is a separate part of the guidance specific to those types of foods.

However, with fresh fruit or veg, you can’t eat two portions of the same thing and count it as two. Two bananas counts as ONE portion. You need to have 5
DIFFERENT fruits or vegetables. Otherwise obviously I could eat a huge portion of tomatoes and claim I’d had my 5 a day.