Getting your 5-a-day is now 7-a-day!

As Scott has pointed out, the "experts" say we should be eating our 7-a-day of fruit and veg and now not 5-a-day.

I feel that 7-a-day is a huge amount to consume and I didn't even make 5-a-day!

Did you ever eat 5 portions of fruit and veg every day?

How do you feel about eating 7 portions a day?

Only 2 a day for most of my life.

Do chips count as veg?

Got my 5 most days, 7's stretching it a bit though, do they all have to be different as well for them to count?

I get 3 a day at most, but my body is in perfect shape.

Exercise will do you a lot more good than eating a few apples.

If an orange is one, does a tangerine still count as one or is it only half? Not to mention grapes? It's so confusing.

Does it still count if you put custard on it?

I'm no doctor but I've really gotten into this lately and done a lot of research, so I'll share with you some useful info on the 5-a-day lark.

*Each portion has to be different to count. If you have a banana in the morning, and another at night, it only counts as one.
*Potatoes don't count. Others that are distinctly disqualified are yams, cassava and plantains, whatever they are.
*There's a limit to how many of the five can be in liquid form. You could have 5 different juice drinks, but it would only count as 1 or 2. The most any amount of any smoothie can give you is 2.
*Variety of colour is important. That's not to say 5 different portions of the same colour don't count.
*Storage is important. Fruit/veg that isn't stored properly loses a lot of the nutrients that are useful to your body.
*There's a lot of surprising ways of getting one if your five a day in. A lemon slice in your drink counts, as does a spoon of tomato puree, a lot of party dips like houmous and guacamole count.
*Wine and cider don't count. Apparently the fruits lose their goodness in the fermenting process.

On average I manage 4 a day. 7 is definitely pushing it.

I try too but fail miserably most days - and they keep shifting the goal posts anyway!

I try to have a glass of juice most days - but the latest research says that liquid fruits are not effective and should not be counted!

Also I prefer to have tin fruit after a meal - because fresh fruit goes off if it doesn't get easten in time - and that now apparently is WORSE than having no fruit at all - due to the sugar in the juice I think?

So at a stroke 2 of my regular 5 a day have just be blown out of the water!

I had also mistakenly thought for a long while that potato's was a banker for being one of my 5 a day - only to find out some months back, that they didn't count at all!

Now it seems that veg is more important than fruit - that they no longer carry equal weight with each other so to speak - so although I still enjoy my salards - I now find that I should be having a meal with two veg also, sometime throughout the day too!

I never counted having tomato ketchup as being one of my five but did think having a double portion of broccoli, cauliflower, peas or whatever would count as two of my five - nope, wrong again!

I like to think I lead a normal family life, so I think most people will struggle to meet the old target of 5, let alone 7 - per day.

I can only think that familys with a stay at home parent, who cook a traditional evening meal as any real chance of hitting the target regularly, whilst the rest of us wail fail miserably!

I guess the Sluffy household really does needs to try much harder!

If you leave an orange in the fruit-bowl too long, what happens?

It goes green and and it would be a bad idea to eat it.

Leave a cup of coffee on your desk for a week and what happens?

It forms a green skin on top and before any smart arse says it's penicillin, no it's not, it's a different mould altogether and it's bad for you.

Therefore, I have concluded that nature's way of telling you that food is bad for you is to make it green.

As a result, I avoid salad and veg like the plague.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.....

Orange peel has more nutrients and goodness in it than the orange segments themselves!

What happens if you eat your 5/7 a day? What happens if you don't?

You live 5/7ths as long as someone who gets their full quota in......

Durr...!  

With the price of fruit and veg these days, for your typical family of 4 I would have thought they would find it difficult to eat 5 or even 7 portions per day due to the cost.

I called in Tesco last night and for 5 "pink lady" apples the price was £3.00!

But you can get a whole pineapple in Asda for 75p.

Bargain!

(If you like pineapple, that is.)

Has anybody here had dragon fruit? They sell for about £2 each, but if they looked as bad as they taste, nobody would touch them.

doffcocker wrote:Has anybody here had dragon fruit? They sell for about £2 each, but if they looked as bad as they taste, nobody would touch them.

Yes!

Inside is like a white/grey with black seeds in it.  Haven't had one for a long time though.

Never bought one from ASDA though, I have normally had them in Asia.

It's not overly sweet by the way.

Try one you might like it!

karlypants wrote:

doffcocker wrote:Has anybody here had dragon fruit? They sell for about £2 each, but if they looked as bad as they taste, nobody would touch them.

Yes!

Inside is like a white/grey with black seeds in it.  Haven't had one for a long time though.

Never bought one from ASDA though, I have normally had them in Asia.

Try one you might like it!

The one I had was like a rotten kiwi, minus any sweetness.

In fairness it had been whoopsed to 10p.

Doffcocker, you've not told us any stories about your adventures in Asda for ages. Do tell.

Breadman wrote:But you can get a whole pineapple in Asda for 75p.

Bargain!

(If you like pineapple, that is.)

I wouldn't have thought they would be big ones for that price or sweet and juicy for that matter?