'Five a Day'

[Coldicote]

How practicable is 'Five a Day'? Presumably this means fresh fruit and veg. or is frozen and tinned just as good? Bearing in mind that many people spend a lot of time at sea, where do they get their 'five a day' from?

As a retired person not bound by routine, breakfast (usually cereal) and one other meal in the evening (including perhaps a couple of veg.) is usually plenty; and in between times perhaps a coffee and a roll or cake of some sort. I try to remember to have an apple or banana is the course of the day, but a bar of choc is much more enjoyable. What do you think about this 'five a day' advice and how strict are you in following it?

[mccfluff]

i rarely have 5 a day, frozen and tinned count. i get a fruit and salad bowl for lunch a couple of days a week and other than that, its whatever i have for dinner

[ummmm]

Tinned veg don't count...just fresh and frozen. Tinned fruit does count though.

I think the 5 a day thing is more to try and get people to have a variety....

[murraymints]

five is easy... jaffa cake...twix....kit kat...jammie dodger...and another Jaffa Cake !!!! easy peasy ........

[mccfluff]

i thought tinned beans count ummmm

[China Doll]

Pretty easy really once I started... I tend to have a banana first thing (for breakie) and then a satsuma around half 10 (eating that now), after lunch (usually some sort of vegtable soup which counts as 1 or 2 portions depending on the vairety) I have an apple and another satusma. I'll probably end up eating some more fruit around 3pm or 5pm if I get munchy and then dinner which usually has some sort of veg in or with it. I've found it ok but I get grumpy if the soup on offer at lunch time is a bit rubbish.

[ethandron]

we find it very easy to follow this guideline - it does include tinned or frozen - and usually have at least 5 portions a day. of course there are foods which are more enjoyable than others but personally we prefer to think of our health. don't forget that a smallish glass of fruit juice also counts as a portion.
i have no idea about people who go to sea but presumably they take fresh fruit and veg along with them, and tinned and frozen, so i can't see it being a problem.

[ethandron]

ummmm, tinned veg do count.

[pastafreak]

Fresh is always best,but frozen,tinned and dried are all perfectly fine. In fact-frozen is better in some cases,as the freezing is done before loss of nutrients.
You need to take into account not just the vitamins and other nutrients in fruit and veg,but also the roll they play in keeping your body functioning at it's best. A good diet is one with variety-not just rolls,chocolate (yummy as it is),and coffee....along with your main meal. Try a bit of fruit on your cereal, and remember that one glass of juice also goes towards your 5-a-day. It's not really all that difficult to do.

[Robinia]

I'm pretty sure canned veg do count.
I don't always have 5-a-day. An elderly neighbour who lived healthily & well into his 80s only ate peas as a veg (as well as spuds) and a few selected fruits.

[rowanwitch]

Banana daiquiri, vodka and orange juice, margarita....thats got lemon/lime in it....and a jug of pimmms should be more than enough...and a peach bellini too to be on the safe side

[ethandron]

a link which might help explain things:
http://www.nhs.uk/Liv...Pages/Whatcounts.aspx

[milly143]

I think it's a load of tosh. I don't eat much veg and I can't remember the last time I had a piece of fruit. The last time I was ill....... dunno. It was yonks ago.

[pastafreak]

ummmm...tinned does count...

http://www.nhs.uk/Liv...Pages/Whatcounts.aspx

[pastafreak]

*snap*-ethandoron.....

[pastafreak]

It's not a load of tosh milly...we have a severe problem in this country with too large a part of the population eating what amounts to crap. Maybe not 5-a-day for everyone-but people do need to incorporate SOME fruit and veg in their diets.

[ethandron]

the less refined foods we can eat the better. if we all ate more veg we'd fill ourselves up with healthy stuff rather than unhealthy stuff. eating lots of fruit and veg now may not prevent you from catching a cold or virus, but in the future it will probably help to prevent you getting many forms of cancer and heart disease. another link:
http://www.nhs.uk/Liv...Y/Pages/Why5ADAY.aspx

[China Doll]

I think the 5 a day thing is more of a guide as I guess if we're all making sure we're getting our 5 a day then we're probably not stuffing our faces with pies... mmmm pies... Anyway, this country is on the way to a fairly decent obesity problem so I think encouraging the munching on of fruit and veg is probably just another way of combatting that.

[mccfluff]

i'm going to get cherry pie from macdonalds later, does that count :-)