Do you eat five portions of fruit/veg a day?

[Darkling1]

I plan my meals around what fruit/veg we have at home, so I consume my five fruit and veg most days!

I remember that target feeling impossible as a child, but I find it much easier as an adult.

Usually, yes.

I would think so, especially at the moment in the summer. Generally three with breakfast (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), an apple for a snack at some point in the day, lunch will be a salad so probably three there (more variety but smaller portions, so a guess!) and always at least two types of veg with tea.

Yes, easily.

I usually have a smoothie with fruit and veg or porridge with 2 fruits for breakfast, then 2 veg for lunch in a soup, salad or sandwich, then 3 veg with dinner again. I often snack on fruit or veg as well. I’m vegan so it’s easier as meals are lots of lentils, legumes and other veg which all count

Yes and I find it easy but grew up eating lots of fruit and veg. For example I have:
Breakfast: glass of milk, a banana, yogurt with berries that have been lightly stewed with maple syrup (2 servings of 80g)
Midmorning snack: cheese plus grapes or apple or small glass orange juice (1 serving)
Lunch: Usually leftovers from the night before or soup or a mushroom omelette plus salad or a veggie pasta dish or beans on toast. Then a snackpack of dried fruit. (2-3 servings depending on main course)
Midafternoon snack: veg plus hummus
Dinner: (1+ serving)
Dinner: meal where we aim to include 2 servings of veg per person. Dried or tinned fruit for pudding. (2-3 servings)

That's 8-10 a day in a non-vegetarian diet. You have to view things like puddings, sweets, cakes and biscuits as rare once a week or less events and always have some veg with all meals so e.g. someone said above about having scrambled eggs on toast for lunch, I'd always have a serving of tomatoes or cucumber or avocado or a salad with that. It's a big volume of food and is not a cheap option and you will poo more than if you're on a low fibre diet.

Do you make them up as you go along? I have a nutri bullet which is under used. I would like to do something other than my usual porridge oats frozen fruit and yoghurt breakfast mix.

This post is quite interesting, some people counting 4-5 fruits / veggies in a juice or smoothie..... that doesn't actually count ? A single serving of juice is 1 portion and anything after that isn't counted. Its due to the lack of fibre in juices.

I aim for 10 smaller portions daily and a variety of things. So my morning smoothie has 4-6 types of berries normally, plus seeds and almond butter (1 portion), and apple juice. I also start the day with the juice of a lemon, grated ginger and honey with hot water, so that’s another 2.

I try to have at least 2-5 types of veg in dinner (I often do stir fry types of meals). And if I have lunch, my go to is a salad.

I haven’t but it definitely seems like an allergy. My tongue can swell up and get blisters. There’s no consistency though, sometimes it’s citrus, sometimes even bananas can burn the roof of my mouth, other times no reaction at all.

Not before we had kids tbh. Now it’s the focus of my meal planning to at least offer them 5 a day, normally aim for like 7 as they won’t eat everything I give them. Now I’ve had kids tho I will eat what they leave a lot of the time so most days I get in at least 5, probably more. They’re not full portions for an adult tho.

Before we had kids we were living off finders and kebab. Started being serious about my healthy eating as soon we stared trying and stuck to it. I miss my finders and still eat them sometimes when my kids aren’t here, but oh my god I feel so much better. If I ate lie I did pre kids I would be huge.

Years ago someone told me it had ‘changed’ to 7, but I never saw that anywhere else. Reading your post, I think the lady who said it must have stumbled upon Aus guideline and not realised.

Anyway, I have eaten at least 7 from then on!

Probably about 5-8 a day. I struggle with fruit but do try. I will eat vegetables until they come out of my ears. My downfall is I don't eat any at breakfast. I live a vegetarian diet so should do better but do meal plan and try and shove as much variety in at lunchtime. For example I've had a mixed salad for lunch and there was at least 8 different types in there but none would have been a portion size individually probably.

I am for at least 7. In summer I find it easy, but winter is harder and I maybe achieve 4 on average. I notice when I don’t eat enough as I get constipated and feel sluggish.

Agree. Love a green smoothie

We probably do 10 ish a day including lentils and beans ( which apareltly count towards the 5 a day goal in the UK )

A lot of countries recommend more than 5 a day. The UK is just scared of recommending what they think the population can’t achieve.

Yes, easily. It's 1:30pm and I've already had 6 portions, my dinner will put my up to 8 or 9 which is a typical number for me.

Occasionally I might have a day where I only have 3 or 4, but that's usually end-of-the-month-and-not-much-food-left days. I make up for it though by often having 10 portions.

Don't forget things like onion and garlic also count if you eat enough!

Lentils/beans only count once a day, same with juices and smoothies.

But you’d need 80g of those spices etc to make one portion.
Thats a lot
How do you do it

Yes I’m aware smoothie = 1, beans and lentils = 1
We don’t eat meat or fish so it’s all about the veggies

Yep - I have the same salad for lunch daily which has (amongst other stuff):
Chickpeas (half a tin)
Half of a big cucumber
handful of cherry tomatoes
half a red onion
sliced black olives

So 3.5/4 portions just at lunch. I generally have an apple mid afternoon and then another 2 portions of veg with dinner.

I easily have more than 5 different types of fruit and veg every day but rarely 5 80g portions so I need to try harder.

I’d say easily 5 portions of veg but I rarely eat much fruit. Find it very sugary and often not juicy and ripe enough!! Also I seem to not have to eat much of it before it travels very quickly through me 💩 (sorry!)

I have around 20+ a day. It's quite easy to increase your number by throwing in fresh herbs and pulses into your cooking. Also add nuts, seeds and fruit to desserts.

No, I’ll eat fruit with breakfast but not huge amounts.
I cook mostly veggie food, so evening meal is much better.

Some people seem confused about a portion. 80g of fresh/tinned/frozen fruit or veg is a portion, as is 30g of dried fruit, or a glass of fruit juice or smoothie. However much fruit or veg you use in smoothies it only counts as a single portion. Same with beans and lentils, they only count as a single portion however much you eat. Potatoes don't count, nor do grains. So in other words you need to eat 400g of solid vegetables and fruit made up of at least five different fruits or veg to get your '5 a day'.

There's another thing which is to aim for 30 types of vegetable and grains eaten across the week. This is less concerned with serving size and is about keeping you healthy by eating a wide variety of foods.

Most days easily

even as a child way way back I think we would nav have 5 a day - 3 veg ( carrot cabbage and peas) and an apple and orange in the winter , seasonal fruit in the summer , oh and bananas. Different veg on a Sunday - turnips

there are 2 different sets of complimentary advise

5 to 8 portions of around 80g per portion per day spread across different food groups ( so only one type of bean for example and don’t count potatoes )

and 30 different plant types on a week / this is less fussy on the quantity and food grouping so a small chunk of garlic , butter beans and pintos and potatoes would all count separately

@Hoolahoophop - yes different every day.Never banana (not keen) or citrus (irritant).