Do you ever find it easy to eat your 5 a day?

[SuperFlyHigh]

I find it hard sometimes to eat my five a day. I like apples for example, raw and stewed, baked etc but then you have to add sugar to them.

I eat an orange in the evenings.

Tried pomegranate seeds on porridge in the morning and almost puked.

I have 2 nice Kiwi fruit and 2 nice plums but I'm like.... no... don't want them. I will eat them though.

I love fruit salad maybe I should do that more? or find stuff I do like.

i mean fruit I like.

I'm great on veggies, love salads, crudites, using veg in curries/stir fries etc

What about vegetables?
I have raspberries, blueberries, banana every day plus salad and veg.

mrsdavid for some reason I hate bananas (loved them as a young child) - I like the berry fruits you mention...

and Tescos used to do some yummy yellow plums but the bastards have stopped stocking them now

yeah I eat loads of veggies, string beans, peas, carrots etc.

and supplement with salad at lunch.

plus crudites with hummus etc. I'm fine with veggies.

Yes, very easy. Fruit with breakfast, salad/soup at lunch, veggies with dinner and that's easily at least 5 a day!

If you have a piece of fruit or veg with each meal then that's already 3 pieces. I think it's quite normal to have 2 veg with dinner if you're doing a meat/potato/veg type meal, so that's another portion. Curries, stir fry etc will have more than one portion of veg in when I make it. Snack on crudites or fruit.

You're sorted then! Veg better than fruit anyway

mrsdavid but they keep banging on about you have to have equal amounts...

I mean like I love Guacamole but that hardly counts right or salsa? or does it? I never know.

Bree - yes I tend to put chickpeas and whatever else eg tin tomatoes etc in curries.

I think I'm doing better than I think and tomatoes are a fruit.

sorry mrsdavid I meant equal amounts fruit/veggies.

I find it quite easy tbh. It's more veg that fruit which is recommended.

If you have x2 pieces with each meal it's easy.
Ie today so far I have had:

Breakfast : porridge with apple purée and blueberries

Lunch : roast veg and lentil soup

That's x4 portions so far. Will have leek, spinach and broccoli tonight, and may eat an apple/ banana as snack at some point

It's 2 fruit and 3 veg but the veg is more important. Ie better to eat 1 fruit and 4 veg than 3 fruit and 2 veg!

Veg are much better for you anyway.

I could easily eat 10 different fruits a day but veg is better.

Have a handful of salad with your sandwich at lunch, do you like bananas? grapes at Aldi are Yummy atm, satsumas, raspberries mmm delish.

Cook two different veg at dinner or make a casserole including a tin of tomatoes, chopped onions, mushrooms etc etc.

Just read your later posts. Equal amounts is bobbins. Fruit is high in sugar so if you prefer veg and salad then that's brill! Good for you as most of my FAVUs are fruit tbh.

You're meant to have more veg than fruit. If you love veg, just make sure you eat 5+ portions of veg. If you eat some raw, and/or if cooking steam or fry to preserve nutrients, you should barely need any fruit.

clary I wish I did like bananas but I don't.

I think I should do the snacking more - grapes etc... can do at work

some fruit I'm not that keen on though...

I understand as I don't like much fruit but I do like veg. But as other say its better to have more veg than fruit anyway so don't worry.

I have yogurt with berries and seeds for breakfast, then a banana sometime in the day, so that's 2 portions, and I have at least 3 portions of veg.

Actually last week I bought a packet of dried dates. They are delicious! So I have 2/3 of them throughout the day too, so I suppose that's half another portion!

I rarely struggle to get my 5 a day unless I am out somewhere for the day and have not taken my own food/picnic etc. (e.g. spent 24 hrs at Alton Towers a few weeks ago and it was almost impossible to get any F&V there!).

Usually 1 for breakfast - grilled mushrooms or tomatoes or orange juice (but don't have juice every day anymore as am also trying to lose weight and it's very sugary)
Always 2 for lunch - usually salad/soup and/or pulses, but if salad, it's loads of salad so at least 2 there
Always 2 for dinner - usual veg whether with roast or stir-fry or curry etc.

So I would say apart from the odd blip, I get a minimum of 5 a day, often more like 7 or 8, and the vast majority is veg rather than fruit.

I honestly find it quite easy and sometimes wonder how so many people seem to find it hard, but then I look around and actually there are a lot of people who clearly have no F&V until they go home in the evening (e.g. many people at work have cereal/toast for breakfast and plain ham/cheese sandwiches for lunch with crisps etc.), so then it would be hard to get 5 into the short space of time left.

D

In Australia it's 5+2 because five pieces of veg and two pieces of fruit are recommended. You sound like you're getting that already.

I don't struggle to get in my five a day - it's often much more.

But- don't get too hung up on fruit. I think that veggies are more important - fruit is very sugary and not filling. I have never heard that you are meant to have equal quantities for the '5 a day' ?

I tend to make a lot of curries- using predominantly vegetables and some beans - such as butter beans or kidney beans. It''s easy to get a few portions down you there. If I have a pasta type dinner then I will either skip the pasta and serve mine on top of shredded cabbage or just cook some extra veggies on the side and mix it through.

As I am currently following Weight Watchers then I have been eating fruit - but for the sweet hit. I had an apple chopped up served with natural yogurt for breakfast today. Also Aldi and LIdl do frozen berries - an economical way of getting a few berries and not spending big £ for a punnet.

you need 5 in total- eg 2 fruit and 3 veg. You can have more of course- 5 was just a guideline they came up with if you read the research- as an achievable target for most people ( there's no real science behind the number 5!)

Fruit can be high(er) in calories than veg.

I can't eat many fruits due to a chronic health issue but I can eat blueberries and apples.

I eat those each day and usually have 3 veg with my main meal ( eg carrots, broccoli and peas or green beans) and a salad or other portion of veg at lunchtime ( eg mushrooms in an omelette, soup made out of 2-3 veg.)

mrsdavid but they keep banging on about you have to have equal amounts...

who does? I think you're mistaken, never ever heard this.

Basically you eat as much veg and fruit as you can stuff away in a day- and major on the veg ( but don't count spuds) .

pinkfrocks I suppose the media perpetuates this myth but they seem to go on about 5 portions a day (not sure about equal maybe I did mishear that.

some days I have my pig out ones where it's carb central (potato salad, pork pies, crisps etc....) but hey the small amount of green in the spring onions in the potato salad has got to count, right?!

pink - yes you're so right about putting them in things.... one of my faves is a parsley omelette. YUM

Soup can be my downfall buying it rather than cooking but if I have roast dinner I make soup out of chicken carcass and I make a nice courgette soup.

I don't really like fruit much. I do have a banana with my breakfast and might add strawberries, cherries or blueberries if in season.

I would say that I usually manage to average 5 a day, despite the only fruit i usually have being a banana, but I'm only just building back up to it after being ill with dodgy guts, at the beginning of the month. It's only in the past week that I've been able to enjoy a big pile of veg, again, and not run straight to the loo, afterwards.

I'm the same as you OP, love veg but very ambivalent about most fruit. I wouldn't say I actively dislike any (except passion fruit - bleurgh) but just can never be bothered with them.
However fruit juice can count as 1 (never more than one and don't have too much of it), a couple of veg each meal time and you are there.
It's never been equal quantities of fruit and veg, but there is a lot of emphasis on variety and eating lots of different colours, maybe that's what you heard?

Fruit juice is actually very bad for you - new research/ thinking.

This is one of many articles on it

How fruit juice is as bad as junk food

I love cooked vegetables, but find salads and fruit a struggle and have to consciously work at it. I naturally prefer comforting carbs .

I add berries and banana to my porridge or cereal in the morning.

Try to eat 1 or 2 pieces of fruit as snacks during the day - usually an apple and an orange. I dont love salad, but add leafy greens like spinach plus tomato/cucumber to lunch time sandwiches, or have veggie soup.

Dinner isnt a problem - almost always have 3-4 portions of steamed or stirfried veg.