If you don't eat 'five-a-day' - why not?

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I'm doing a bit of work at the moment in public health and understanding the barriers to uptake of fruit & veg.

I have my own research & theories, but I'd be interested in views and perspectives.

The reality is that we should actually eat closer to nine-a-day, but the five-a-day message was felt to be more achieveable.
Also people in the UK tend to eat more fruit than veg, which can also cause some problems (fruit sugar, teeth etc)

I think most people would now know about the benefits of fruit & veg?
So, if you're not getting 5 a day, what are your reasons?

The 'official' NHS website is here, which has lots of answers:

5 A Day

I must admit, I don't understand the too expensive/ too time consuming arguments - I think they're a cover for something else?

Processed foods and ready meals work out much more expensive than a lot of fruit and veg.

Lots of frozen veg can be cooked quicker in the microwave than fish fingers in the oven.

Is it wastage that's a problem?
Is it poor knowledge about how to cook veg etc?

there are times when we eat loads of fruit of veg, on a good day dds and i have most of our five a day on a morning i.e. porridge with raisins, bannana and orange would count as three, lunch home made cheese burger with sliced peppers, carrot and cucumber sticks and an apple and yoghurt would be two or three, dinner cheese and broccoli pasta with homemade friut crumble or bought fresh friut salad and custard would be another two, supper banana on toast and milk would be more. is a good example of one of our good days.

a bad day sweet waffles with jam and a banana, tinned spaghetti and toast nad yoghurt for lunch and something with chips for dinner and a mousse, biccies and milk for supper.

i think we have an equal amount of good days as we do bad days it really just depends on what i ahve in to cook and how much time i have that day. i.e. if i still have a huge sink of washing up to do after dinnner the night before then it is easier to give dds sweet waffles instead of spoon feeding dd2 porridge while i wash up.

if i didnt have time to get the veggies or salad stuff the night before or early morning it will tinned or frozen stuff for lunch and its nearly always some sort of pasta for dinner for the dds and i nearly always add veg to it.

so it really just depends upon how organised i am.

i eat as much as possible the aim being ten..which is why we have a thread for it on mn ostensiblky

but i find it much easier to eat fruit than veg because i am on my own

but my day will go

oats granola and thawed frozen fruit mix two portions organic milk

snakcs of bananas pears stasumas apples during the day probably abput 6

large helping salaad leaves, tomato red pepper mushrooms with cottage cheese or chicken cooked in yougurt and spices

cottage cheese or cheddar or prawns cauliflour
1 or 2 cartons of orange and mango juice a week

oh Zippi - I didn't realise there was another thread? Is it in Health?

Sorry Riven, I didn't realise you had caring responisbilities - that makes your response more understandable.

When I said I didn't understand how people could say it 'takes too long' I was thinking about people I know who say this, but will wait 30 minutes for a pizza instead

Because when I shop I mostly think about what the children want and either don't buy what I like or don't like to eat what I figure is theirs. Mad, me. I will go without so they don't have to but really nobody has too.

I am officially barmy.

oh we have a thread called ten ten in health which is ongoing every week we start a new one

we gossip and chat and eat fruit and veg lol

well we dont always succeed we just qim to eat lots of fruit and veg

I didn't realise that I did eat 5 portions, i just looked at the 5 a day website and I do ..
most days I eat more.

frozen and tinned veg, fruit added to smoothies or smoothies frozen into ice lollies and juice count, too!

that's where we get the bulk of our fruit and veg - in addition to eating lots of pulses.

Recruiting Zip?

well it does sound a lot until you assume that most of the food you buy is fruit or veg

frozen stuff is quite economical if you dont have a local market

Bulk cooking is a great way of cutting costs and saving time

I think there are whole generations of young parents today who just have not grown up with fruit and veg as part of their life, so therefore cannot see the point/ value of now including it?

oddly I eat more when I am at work than on the days when I am at home. On work days if I have cerealI have a banana with it, then take 2 or 3 fruit portions to work which I snack on through the day (I don't want to know how bad that is for my teeth !), and then 2 or 3 portions with dinner.

On days when I am at home I tend to forget to eat the fruit - so only have the one with dinner.

So I guess I average 4 (unless it is strawberry or nectarine or satsuma season when I average much more ).

I don't agree with the nine-a-day message and nor, any longer, does the French ministry of health.

A few years ago, while the UK was beginning its five a day campaign for fruit and veg, the French started a ten a day campaign. It was everywhere.

Being a good girl interested in her health I upped my own quantities of fruit and veg (I tended to eat a lot of fruit and veg and the campaign only furthered my overzealousness).

A few months later I was at the GP for another complaint and she asked to examine my tummy. After prodding it a bit and me going "ouch" she asked me how many fruit and veg I ate a day. I duly told her that I tried to eat the ten a day that were recommended. She told me to stop immediately and to cut right back to 4/5.

Basically my whole gut and stomach had become inflamed from far too much fibre, fructose etc. She told me she saw masses of young female patients (the keenest segment on keeping their weight to healthy levels) with this problem.

Anyway, I cut right back to 4/5 a day and got much better (in every way - I had multiple vague health problems) within a month.

Needless to say, the French government's official line these days is 5 a day, like everyone else...

some days I eat more than 5, some days less
probably had 4-5 yesterday, am on 2 so far today

I generally have to eat 2 or 3 pieces of fruit a day to manage it and don't always feel like it- am more likely to do it at work than when I am home. Weekends are usually my worst time in terms of portions of fruit and veg.

am sometimes too lazy to make a salad to go with pasta etc
and definitely can't face fruit for breakfast at 7am

not sure I have ever managed 9 portions!

I find it much easier to eat the requisite quantities of fruit and veg (and to force them upon my family, especially) when I shop daily for fresh fruit and veg. Fruit and veg are so much nicer, and need so much less preparation and cooking, when they are incredibly fresh.

For example, yesterday, it being Monday and most shops being shut, I made a Thai beef curry in coconut milk with rice for supper - because all the ingredients keep well. So - hardly any veg and no fruit at all at supper time.

Today, Tuesday, I went to the market and got fresh Dover sole, fresh baby spinach, tiny new potatoes, cherries and apricots. Supper time will therefore have three fruit/veg (and potatoes, which don't count but still have vitamins and fibre). And since I two huge salads for lunch with 6/7 vegetables between them, I have easily hit my target.

I do usually, but I don't like much fruit. I force an apple a day down, but mostly I eat salad (expensive) and carrots (prep required)

man evolved to eat vegetables when nothing else was available. A 'poor person's' diet is usually the healthiest - low in fat and refined food - but we don't eat like poor people any more. Biscuits used to be expensive, but I can buy tesco Value chocolate digestives for 27p a packet - 20 in a packet. 2 for a snack. But a bag of apples is about £1.20- 6 in a bag - and apples are one of the cheaper fruit. the biscuits work out at 2.7 p per snack (of 2 biscuits) and the apples work out at 20p each.

It's nearly 10x more expensive to snack on fruit!

Likewise, the price of pasta or supernoodles compared to the price of salad - to get the same calories, which are necessary for continued life signs, you need to spend much more money. Yes, the salad is much better for you, but it costs much much more to eat healthily and with a varied diet. To eat both healthily and as cheaply as unhealthily is both near impossible and boring as fuck.