Do you really get your five a day?

[chessica]

YABU - yes
YANBU - no

I aim to eat healthily where I can but realistically I probably only have 3 portions of fruit or veg most days. Some days more and some days I only have one.
In a normal day, I’ll have an apple, a bowl of berries/some grapes and then possibly a chickpea curry. Sometimes I add spinach to this and sometimes I don’t. Obviously that’s only 3 a day really as I’m not having that many berries or chickpeas.

I wonder what makes the Japanese diet healthier if there isn't much fruit and veg in it?

The easiest way to get more cheap veg in your diet is to add more to one pot meals. We are having greek lamb stew tonight which features onion, peppers, courgettes, aubergine and two tins of tomatoes. As it is all being chopped up and cooked you can use wonky and not so fresh veg.

Agree with this. I have a broken arm so am limited to what I can cook. I've been making loads of one pot stew type things. I chuck onions, celery and carrots plus whatever veg in the food processor- yesterday Cottage pie had those veg plus courgettes, leeks and a handful of lentils in with the meat. Served with peas and broccoli. Fish stew had the same but with red pepper not courgettes.

Before anyone says it, dh would willingly cook but I'm bored out of my brain and happy to do something simple like chuck veg in a pan!

Depends on which apples. Basic ones can be bought for like 90p for 6. So could be about a fiver.

Yes it's expensive. But we never get takeaways (well, once in a blue moon), and we eat out maybe twice a year. We don't have coffees/lunch out. We also don't buy baked goods very often - instead, I usually make our own treats. So we might spend disproportionately on day-to-day eating, but we make quite substantial savings elsewhere.

I use a fair bit of frozen veg, as well as frozen berries. We usually buy one lot of fruit per week, sometimes two (more in the summer/warm weather), since it's mainly DH who eats it. Apples & grapes, pears & melon, that sort of thing.

Apples will be more pricey now as the supply of overwintered UK grown apples is ending.

Understanding seasonality helps with keeping the fruit and veg costs down.

No I don't bother because it's just a marketing campaign. I do like vegetables and salad so I eat a fair bit, and in big portions. I don't eat a lot of carbs so I eat more vegetables instead of potatoes, pasta and bread. I hardly eat any fruit but that's not good for much more than vitamin C. My mother-in-law ate loads of fruit but developed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease which makes me concerned about eating so much fructose.

A lot of fruit isn't great. Intake should be mainly vegetables. But most people find fruit a lot more appealing so do tend to skew things to that side.

I have recently started to focus on trying to get 8-10 portions of fruit and veg a day and it is definitely expensive. If you stick to the very cheap fruit/veg it is doable but extremely repetitive.

I manage it by not having any refined carbs except small amounts at dinner.

So a typical day is something like:

Frittata with broccoli and courgette - 2-3
Salad or soup for lunch - 2-3 (yes it's a massive salad lol)
Curry and rice for dinner - 2-3
Portion or two of fruit as a snack

When it comes to basic supermarket apples seasonality doesn't really come into it. They are stored away for year easily. They hold price. The reason for them going up are growing issues and general inflation. Seasonality shows on types which cannot really be stored like this because they will go powdery etc.

Depends on which apples. Basic ones can be bought for like 90p for 6. So could be about a fiver.

Where? and what size?

Asds and tesco are the two I know about. It's the smaller ones but it's still better than nothing.

Yeah but it's not really cheaper if they are half the size of a normal apple.

What is "normal apple". I had quite size variations in many of the common varieties. With these you at least know what you are getting. I don't find them half size compared to other cheaper common types.
Point is you can afford apples

A normal sized apple to me is more than 3 bites. I never said I couldn't afford apples just making the point they aren't that cheap...

Yabu in thinking it's only 5 a day. You should get much more.

Sorry that should have said people, not you.
Apples vary in size all the time even within same type. I had some in these cheap packs from asda which were basically size of their pink lady ones.
It's noticable in some shops though yes.

Probably not. I tend not to eat fruit for breakfast because I'm saving it for the kids, they get through so much! But I might have a banana or pear.
Always have veg with lunch, normally salad or tomatoes or homemade coleslaw. And always have a couple of veg with dinner, sometimes more. I'd say definitely 4 a day generally but could do with more. I actually like fruit but tend not to eat loads. In season I eat rhubarb and raspberries from my garden too.