Eating 30 plants a week- what portion size is enough to count?

[CormorantStrikesBack]

Is it like 5 a day veg and it needs to be a handful or because it’s more about gut health is a smaller amount enough ?

I’ve just had a ready meal and figured I could count the brown rice. But what about all the smaller amounts of veg?

I didn't know that, we have Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, Sainsburys (expensive) and Waitrose (expensive) near us.

They do that in Australia too, but don't where I shop in the UK. So I might buy a melon one week and a pineapple the next. We are still getting through the last of last year's apples though. If we have free fruit, we prioritise making sure that doesn't go to waste.

@Kalevala - we also have lots of garden fruit frozen we use at home. But the 1/2 portion is handy for fussy 3 year old to take to nursery sometimes.

The study it all comes from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954204/

Fair enough, but I genuinely wouldn't end up with loads of waste from that list, and there's only two of us now. I might cook extra and freeze some portions but most of it would get eaten in one go - a bulb of fennel between two, an avocado between two, a couple of peppers etc. Nearly everything listed can be bought individually at the supermarket, even carrots and parsnips.

When I tried to do it for one person it was very hard not to waste food and keep it varied. With bigger families it is much easier.
I wouldn't like to eat the same food every week on end!

If I have a salad with 8 different leaves in it, is that 8, or two? About 50g, so less than a serve for 5 a day. Are ginger and garlic vegetables or spices? Does kale in a ferment count as one if it's a small quantity (with chilli, garlic and turmeric, so a condiment rather than a side)?

Yes, agree. I did a few count-ups of plant foods I’d eaten in a week and it was always 30 or more. Now I don’t bother to count but actively try to incorporate lots of variety in a meal. I’m not veggie but I was for 30 years so I suppose that helps.

@LightSwerve It doesn’t need to be so expensive. I pressure-cook batches of different kinds of beans (cannellini, chick peas, borlotti etc), freeze them on open trays then bag them like peas, and tinned pulses can be bought quite cheaply if that’s a bother. Frozen veg such as spinach goes a long way. Pearl Barley is cheap and I use that a lot instead of rice. My Instant Pot is my friend in all of this as it cuts cooking times by 2/3. Cheaper fruit and veg can be used too - it all counts.