I’m passionate about a lot of things when it comes to healthy lifestyles – the benefits of drinking water, the importance of eating clean and real food, going back to basics and avoiding packaged junk, the effect that strength and flexibility can have on your overall mental and physical state… those are just a few. But perhaps one of my biggest passions is helping people to reach (and hopefully exceed) their recommended 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. The benefits of eating more of the plant-stuff are REAL, I promise you – just ask the peeps on my Spring Clean programme!
The UK’s recommendation is that you eat 2 portions of fruit and 3 portions of vegetables a day – that ratio is because fruit is higher in sugar than vegetables, and veggies tend to have a broader range of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals which can help protect us from diseases. In Australia, the recommendation is 2 portions of fruit and 5 of veg a day. And despite originally starting with the World Health Organisation’s recommendations of 5 a day, countries like Denmark (6 a day), France (10 a day) and Japan (a whopping 13 a day – 4 from fruit and 13 from veg) have upped their recommendations over the last few years. So our piddly 5 a day seems like child’s play in comparison! Surely we’re cool enough to play with the grown ups?
The scary thing is, so many people aren’t even reaching our small recommendation. I think that’s probably for a number of reasons:
Are you getting your 5 a day?
- I think there’s a lot of confusion about what a ‘portion’ actually is. “Hurrah!”, you think, “I’ve scoffed a satsuma – that’s one of my portions!”… Erm, no. Sorry. That’s half a portion. Check out the box opposite for what a portion looks like
- “Jacket potato in my gob, that’s a portion of veg!” – nope, I’m afraid not! While potatoes are definitely vegetables, they don’t actually count towards your 5 a day because they’re a starchy carbohydrate. So unless you’re loading your spud with salad or beans, you need to rethink that one!
- Squishing the juice of out fruit only counts as one portion, no matter how much not-from-concentrate, no-added-sugar goodness you think you’re drinking! See, when you squelch out the juices, you leave behind the pulp that contains all the nutrients and leave yourself with the liquid sugar. And, even more of a shame, this ‘one portion of juice’ rule doesn’t apply to wine. Oh how we wish it did.
- Sadly, I think some people find fruit and veg boring, or they have a phobia about the textures, tastes and other things. Okay, so school dinner cabbage (which I strangely loved as a kid and used to swap my ice cream for people’s cabbage), might be to blame for that – but there’s such a HUGE variety of different fruit and veg out there, and a gazillion ways to cook them and incorporate them into our diets – you’ll surely be able to find a way that you like to eat things. It’s sometimes just a matter of trying something new.
Tag your fruit & veg pics!
So I want to set a little challenge for you all in May – #MAY5ADAY – and a bit of a challenge for me too!
Every Monday in May I will share a recipe that helps you up your intake of fruit and veg. Your part of the bargain is to make a conscious effort to reach your target – and get involved by tagging me in your photos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use the #MAY5ADAY.
Of course, the easiest way for you to kick this challenge into touch would be to sign up for my May Spring Clean intake. You’ll be given meal plans and recipes that will help keep you on the 5 a day path – and you’ll get a whole heap of other benefits from the healthy food too. You can find out more HERE.
What say you? You in?
Belle Bites by NutriBelle 