Review of the "Five a day" message

Always wondered why potatoes were excluded! I thought it was probably something, ahem, unscientific

Yes quite, more of a judgement call to discourage the consumption of chips or crisps while telling oneself they are a healthy food. I think another way of putting it is that by the time you have peeled em, chopped them up and boiled them in saturated oil at a high temperature, any resemblance to a vegetable (e.g. fibre, Vitamin C) has been obliterated. So maybe not so unscientific really.
Oh and then there are the Walsall specials - dunk them in bright orange batter before you fry them! [faintly queasy emoticon]

How would boiling destroy the fibre? VitC, yes, but fibre?

Do chip shops actually use saturated fats nowadays? I thought they all used vegetable oils, which is why chip shop chips don't taste as good as they did when I was a kid.

Skins on, potato wedges, oven-roasted in goose fat. Yum. Taste factor does it for me every time.

Can't remember when I last ate those either

Once you take the skin off there is very little fibre left - the potato cells are very large, mainly starch, not much of anything else.
If you boil veg oil at a high temperature it changes chemically and becomes progressively less "healthy" than cold uncooked oil.
Last time I had really nice chips was in a bar in Spain - someone had peeled a real potato for me. Tasted like my nana used to make. Chips in Uk are made from tasteless varieties of potato selected for convenience to caterers rather than taste. Mostly they are made in a factory and chilled. You see them being delivered to restaurants in big plastic bags.

Good advice. Simply to remember.

Just need to get more people to 'buy into' its benefits when 'Five-a-day' struggles against the slick marketing of less healthy foods.

It's a pity the professor's not enthusiastic about smoothies, though. I love them and would never get my five a day without them...

I think he's only commenting that they don't have an effect on satiety Ana

Yes, having read the article more carefully you're right, Nanado - he was talking about the benefits of fruit and veg in general diet rather than as a protective measure.

So enjoy your smoothies.

I doin't believe five a day is necessary. Never have done. Just another silly spin by these modern day over-youthful politicians.

ana and nanado I don't want to things but there is a lot of evidence that smoothies are not good for you.
They contain high levels of fructose (fruit sugar) whichcontributes to dental decay
The reason why smoothies are worse than solid pieces of fruit is that the maceration process releases the fructose from the cells of the solid fruit, so that when you drink a smoothie, it's right there in your mouth, acting on your teeth, whereas if you ate an apple for instance, the fructose wouldn't be released in such large quatities until it was safely in your stomach.
Unfortunately that's not all. If you google 'fructose metabolism' you'll find all sorts of scholarly articles describing ways in which fructose affects weight gain and bloating.
I used to love smoothies when they first came out but after seeing increasing numbers of patients with quite horrific levels of tooth decay at a time of life when you wouldn't expect it, I now restrict myself to one small glass of tropicana with breakfast

that should be 'spoil things'

Oh... Still, smoothies presumably fine if you've got a full set of false teeth?
(I haven't yet, I hasten to add!)

Ana

Continuing with the 'bash the smoothie' theme ....

...... many weight-loss programmes say that you can eat as much fruit as you like but juices are restricted. This is because you are unlikely to eat a whole bag of apples or oranges in one go because of the sheer volume and effort required, but you could quite easily glug a large glass of juice which is high in calories.

I'm not very fruity, so it's OK with me!

I love my 5 a day and firmly believe that it stops me eating the bad things. When I get the munchies in the evening I can eat fruit but if I didn't have it would be tempted to go out and buy chocolate. I often feel that restaurants don't give us enough veg.

I also think that it is better to eat food in as near its natural state as possbile and therefore don't each much that has been processed.

All the above is true on 'normal' days but it has flown out the window over Christmas and is still out there now until I get home and finish off the chocs!

I'm with jings on this. My bowel can't cope with the recommended daily amounts of fruit and veg. I'd have the runs constantly if I got anywhere near it.

Are nuts included in the goody-two-shoes' list?

I love nuts ..... someone told me years ago that there are FIVE calories in each pistachio! Didn't put me off though

I stopped buying smoothies. A full glass contains about 8 teaspoonfuls of sugar. Similar to orange juice and normal cola. I think as well jane that you may be more likely to stimulate insulin production if you eat stuff that has been pre-processed. Sugar gets into blood more quickly, insulin goes up and then you get hungry again faster as a result.
Makes sense to me but of course the body can be counter-intuitive in its ways.
This conversation has prompted me to eat a banana,

I went through a smoothie phase a few years ago and piled on the weight. Crammed full of fruit, bio yoghurt and honey I thought I was being healthy.Didn't fill me up and ended up with the belly of a sumo wrestler [or tenpintsanight bloke]. Concentrated calories. Good way to use up bananas that are over ripe though. Always plan to eat more veg at this time of year but it doesn't last [eat a lot of salad but that's it really].

Making potatoes into chips actually doesn't destroy the vitamin C content. Boiling the life out of them does. Why don't more people steam vegetables. They take only a little longer to cook and less vitamins are destroyed.

I believe, that along with fruit and vegetables filling one up more satisfactorily than chocolate and biscuits, it's not only the vitamins that benefit us but the trace elements. There's nothing wrong with some chocolate and biscuits and indeed crisps too. Everything in moderation. That goes for my gin and tonic too!

A spokesman for Innocent said a 250ml bottle of one of its smoothies contains the same amount of sugar as a large banana