What makes up a portion of fruit and veg a day?

[Hulababy]

We all know that we should be eating 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. Been thinking about this and I honestly couldn't think of what an actual 'portion' size might be. So today at the local city farm I picked up a leaflet with examples of portion sizes. Thought I'd share them here in case anyone else is as bad as me:

Fruit and veg can be frsh, frozen, chilled, canned, 100% fruit juice, dried - they all count.

Portion size is equivalent to 80grams or 3 ounces.

Fruit and veg in convenience food including ready meals, ppasta sauces, soups and puddings can count to - but watch salt and sugar and fat.

Actual examples (in no order) then:

12 chunks of canned pineapple
7 cherry tomatoes
1 medium pear
1 medium apple
1 cereal bowl of mixed salad
2 halves of canned peaches
2 satsumas
1 tablespoon of raisins
1 handful of vegetable sticks
1 handful of grapes
1 medium banana
3 heaped tablespoons of peas
2 medium plums
2 broccoli florets
half a large courgette
1 medium glass of orange juice
7 strawberries
3 whole dried apricots
3 heaped tablespoons of sweetcorn
3 heaped tablespoons of carrots
3 heaped tablespoons of kidney beans
16 okra

Also:

Juice can only count for one portion a day
Potatoes don't count as they are a starchy food and come elsewhere in a balanced diet.

It looks like you'd have to eat a lot to get the 5 portions.
Is is true that you can only eat each type of fruit once for it to count, eg 5 apples would only be 1 portion?

really strange isn't it - I mean two broccoli florets is nothing, but 3 heaped tblsps of peas is a lot of peas!

Leaflet doesn't say that - sorry. Can't see what it would be though.

It is a lot of food isn't it, especially when you add the other food stuffs to the list for your daily balanced diet!

Also, each fruit or veg only counts once per day. So if you had, say, 2 pears, that would only count as one portion. Variety is important.

Yes, they have to be different cos of different vitamins in each etc.

And this is why I take vitamin pills too to be on the safe side Actually, I do better than I thought we did - we average around 3-4 portions of fruit and veg a day.

There you then - didn't know that.

I can honestly say that I rarely have 5 portions a day in this case.

Just have a piece of fruit or juice with breakfast, fruit with lunch, two veg with dinner and fruit for desert.

It isn't that hard to do, as long as you make sure that you snack on friut and veg.

A glass of juice in the morning
Apple /pear/ or banana mid morning
veg sticks with a sandwitch also containing salad
2 portions of veg with your evening meal

Ack, Internet connec from work is RUBBISH.
The rule for kids, btw, is 1 level tbsp per year of life=1 serving, until age 5 when they should have same as adults.

Don't really like fruit much, and certainly not juice

Let's see on a normal day:

None at breakfast
Lunch is normally big bowl of salad so 1 or 2 then
Tea will have a couple of types of veg or sald (but can't count salad twice); no pudding at all for me.

So 3 or 4 at a maximum. Probably have most when I do a big pasta for tea with lots of roasted vegetables.

And I just don't snack during the day at all.

what i often do is have a big portion of mixed frozen veg with whatever im eating for dinner -no preparation etc and 3 portions

Based on the other calculation I reckon DD must generally hit her daily amount most days though.

We'll have 2 veg for dinner and at least one dessert in the day will be fruit. I'll have a glass of juice with the evening meal but ds doesn't enjoy juice (will only drink water or squash).

Could have more fruit for snack times, but ds addicted to custard cream biscuits at the moment, so as long as he's eaten well in the day he gets 2 biscuits for one snack, and usually cheese for the afternoon snack. Not ideal, but then the calcium is good for him too! Occasionally we'll have raisins instead.

Shame ketchup/pickle doesn't count really

I do like vitamin supplements though. We don't rely on them, but it does take the stress out of the occasional bad eating day and I don't turn into a nag with ds to eat all his veg.

Are we talking about us or kids? The boys always have at least 5 a day, often more I often only manage a couple ... Oops!

My ds is mad about organic fruit compote from the supermarket - I put in on yoghurt and call it jam It's a mix of fruit so must count for lots. I think he does better than me. Must set a better example.

I use my hands as a guide - for fruit and veg a portion is what you can hold in one hand, for salads what you can hold in 2 hands. Funnily enough, a portion of chocolate is always bigger than a portion of fruit - not sure how that happens

Ketchup does count I think.

I know that a cereal bowl sized serving of salad is one portion. Also, juice and raisins can only be counted once a day. I would say that if you eat two pears in one day, you could safely say that you have had two portions, as long as you have generally had a varied selection during the day/week. I find it incredibly hard to get my five portions (ooh er missus ), but I adi it by making a vegetable soup to have with my sandwich at lunch-time. That must give me at least two proptions a day. My diet sheet also specifies tywo pieces of fruit a day. In addition, I have a massive salad with my evening meal, or a couple of different vegetables. That is on a good day though. I have been known to have a banana at breakfast, and then get the rest of my nutirents from a vitamin pill!

I think I read somewhere that toddlers 'only' need 4 portions a day, but getting one that isn't juice into ds is a major feat!

Tesco do a good leaflet on this subject.

'Add to it' scuse typo

Oh, and 'portions' - sorry!!

Oh I give up! That'll teach me to preview

I reas somwehere recently that research has shown that eating 3 portions a day is almost as effective as 5 - and a darn sight more achievable.

bobthebaby and iota, I love you both - feel a lot better now