10 a day!!!!

Hmmm, I wonder. I think 10 a day is a bit excessive, but I do think we need to be encouraging people to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables.

The cost can be reduced by using markets instead of supermarkets, and using frozen products instead of fresh (what is the difference between freezing a home harvest of produce and buying pre-frozen?) although I accept it can be expensive. FarmFoods, for example, sell bags of frozen veg for £1 and I think I'm right in saying they are often 3 for 2.

And instead of feeding children (and adults for that matter) sugary fatty chocolatey breakfast cereals, they can be encouraged to eat porridge with some fruit (1 or 2 of their 10 a day), or fruit with natural yogurt, or pancakes with fruit etc.

And eating more salads and crudites - how many portions of veg in a salad? I have lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, spring onions, radishes, red pepper, green peppers and red/orange peppers in my salad (which I eat daily - I love salad!) - so that has to be a few more portions - at least four, I would think.

And an evening meal with a couple of veg served alongside, and you're up to 7 or 8 portions.

I know there are many people who "can't possibly eat fruit" or "can't possibly eat veg" because they "don't like them" (really?? don't like ANY of the hundreds of varieties of fruit and vegetables that are available?)

And as for the cost - well there are very few people who would have absolutely no ability to grow anything at home. I have zero interest in gardening or growing things, but even I managed to grow strawberries, carrots, onions, potatoes, lettuces and tomatoes in a container last year. Everyone has a window ledge or window cill or a plot of garden which can be used to grow things.

I do get that it is a big part of the weekly budget, but if we cut back on what we spent on crap food, the hit to the purse would be less heavily felt.

It can be done. But it needs a commitment and the ability to tell ourselves to ruddy well grow a pair and stop whingeing that "I don't like", like stroppy little kids!

Fruit often has a high sugar content and is expensive. Vegetables are a much easier alternative. Just tried a 'Leon' recipe ( cookery book was a present to my husband) - cous cous with 7 vegetables. Really good and not over expensive. Certainly cheaper than meat. Incidentally I'm not a vegetarian.

Porridge with fruit for brekkie. Then if you make a batch of homemade soup for lunch, you could probably cram about 6 vegetables in there- onion, carrot, sweet potato, courgette, cabbage, tomato etc. Vary it. Pick blackberries for free in the autumn and you can have enough to last the year. A couple of veg with your dinner. Easy, peasy.

So - 80 grams.
What if I eat 2 tomatoes (I always have more) - does that mean 2, 3, or 4 veg?
Just being awkward.

Exactly, pittcity

I've eaten all I'm going to eat today (except maybe some hot chocolate later (cocoa is a vegetable) and if nuts and seeds are included I reckon I've covered five, maybe six, but in nothing like the quantities recommended, mainly because I eat small portions as suits my size and rate of food burn.

What about the beans in coffee and chocolate and the berries in gin?

Everything in moderation?
Sensible, preferably home-cooked food - frozen veges are very good as they haven't sat on a shelf somewhere for weeks; etc.
I don't think that smoothies etc are especially good as one consumes rather more sugar than recommended. Sugar is a big NO NO, isn't it? though I am told that agave syrup and date syrup are much better being "natural" [and very expensive]
Hahaha

Good grief! How long will this fad last? 10,000 steps has been around a while and I guess it's now time for the next one. Eat sensibly is my maxim - with the odd treat thrown in here and there.

I am puzzled by something (as usual). Two broccoli spears or four heaped tablespoons of cooked kale, spinach, spring greens or green beans count as one portion. A medium tomato counts as one portion. But if you put them all in a smoothie and drink them (god forbid!) that still apparently only counts as one portion, not several portions. So, if you can eat them and achieve several portions a day, why can't you drink them and achieve several portions a day?

As I understand, the 5 a-day mantra was plucked from thin air and not based on any scientific fact .... so who knows whence 10 a-day comes from!

Not wishing to sound rude but I would be spending a lot of time on the toilet.

80grams I think. So 1 tomatoes 1 apple, etc. Adds up really easily.

NfkDumpling gave a link to the NHS guide to portion sizes in her post of 12.44 today, Tricia.

Anya wrote:
"Nellie potatoes don't count toward your daily total (re your soup)"
That's a shame - I was counting chips and tomato sauce as 2!
Not really - I'm lucky, I don't like chips.
I would like to know what counts as a 'helping'.Maybe it's in one of the links that people have given.

My father hates all fruits and vegetables. If we take him out for a meal he thinks it's a great insult if they put vegetables on his plate ' Why do they do that? I haven't asked for them'. he wails! He celebrated his 90th birthday last week and still lives in his own house and catches the bus into town. His favourite meal is bacon, eggs and fried bread - all cooked in lard! I don't take any notice of any dietary directives apart from trying not to become overweight. Dad still weighs the same as he did when he was 20.

Also, seriously, longevity is rising throughout the world so I think we just worry too much about what might kill us in the end.

Good grief! I'm a martyr to my bowels already! I wouldn't leave the house if I ate that lot.

If we followed every 'best for you' bit of advice we would go mad! 10,000 steps led to so many other things falling to pieces in my day as I just couldn't walk fast enough to fit in that amount of steps every single day. I've just comfortably made it to 5 a day knocking it back to no more than 2 fruits and now I have to raise it again. Yes it is expensive to do I don't care what others say. Yes you can make it in dishes like soups and " problem solved" but then you find to make it possible you can't have soup every day, otherwise when do you get your oily fish, protein etc etc. Half the time tv chefs add so much salt or fry or add things to make them tasty but surely we are then eating badly to eat well? I'll do my best as I've said every day, you can only do your best!

I shall not 'indulge' in sepsis if I can help it, anya

To answer your question Bags - one possible cause of death you might care to indulge in is sepsis. 44,000 die from this every year in the UK, which is 3667 every month, 122 every day, 5 people every hours or approx one every 11 seconds.

No saying that eating veg and fruit would combat this, but just picking up point that infection doesn't kill.

When the media print headlines like that it puts people off, they feel as though they will fail so may as not try.
Fresh(ish) berries are so expensive but frozen are much better value. I think veg is cheap when you compare it to a takeaway coffee, chocolate bar or a sausage roll from a bakery.

Nellie potatoes don't count toward your daily total (re your soup)

I should have added that Imperial college London is where the study was done. These diktats are usually based on a traceable study by someone or other, and they CAN be accessed and judged by Joe or Josephine Bloggs without being filtered through a journalist.

I have found the Imperial College London report on the study. It is at www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_22-2-2017-16-38-0 (and it is just a perfectly readable account with no jargon, so don't be afraid to look at it) and they promise that "A link to the paper will be provided as soon as it is available" As soon as that appears, we will be able to check on what the paper actually SAID and whether it was sponsored by anyone with a vested interest.

I know thatbags, its all a bit worrying that we are being made to shy away from the idea that we will actually die of something at some point. We cannot put the inevitable off for ever.

Far more sensible to think of it as just helping ourselves to be as healthy (for our age/stage) as we can i.e. not being a burden too soon. Its not a bad idea to try to remain as fit as we can through half decent nutrition and a bit of well aimed exercise....but we do need to be enjoying life after all!