5 A Day

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  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    I eat three of each every day. Fruit whole or sliced or in smoothies. Vegetables raw or gently heated, or mashed in soups and stews.

    My fruit favorites are: Apples (green Granny Smith, on the top of the list, and big red ones at Christmas), pears, plums, bananas, honey dew melon, litchi, pomelo, mango, pomegranate, apricots, grapes, passion fruit, cherries, pineapple, peach, and strawberries, blueberries, blackberries.

    Raw vegetables: Cucumber, pepper (red or green), cauliflower, broccoli, carrots. Peas and green beans with dinner. Everything imaginable for soup.

    I don't count potato, sweet potato or dried legumes as vegetables, they are starches.
  • heatheremde
    heatheremde Posts: 43 Member
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    I am making a goal to eat at least one raw meal a day and see how my energy levels are. How do you eat so much fruit and not worry about sugar intake?
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    I am making a goal to eat at least one raw meal a day and see how my energy levels are. How do you eat so much fruit and not worry about sugar intake?
    I just don't worry about sugar intake :smile: Sugar is just a carb, and as long as you get enough fat and protein and micronutrients, and don't exceed your calories limit, you'll be fine.
  • TheGymGypsy
    TheGymGypsy Posts: 1,023 Member
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    I am making a goal to eat at least one raw meal a day and see how my energy levels are. How do you eat so much fruit and not worry about sugar intake?

    Sugar won't hurt you unless you are diabetic.
  • Strokingdiction
    Strokingdiction Posts: 1,164 Member
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    I meet my macros and my micros, I don't count actual fruit/veggie serving numbers.

    This. I don't even know how to calculate a "serving."

    1 serving = how much I put on my plate
  • lrearick1452
    lrearick1452 Posts: 10
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    Most days I get at least 4. Banana for potassium, apple for mid morning snack, salad w/lunch or dinner, plus another cup or more of vegetables with dinner. the kicker is knowing which "vegetables" are truly vegetables and not carbs. All but one squash, all root vegetables, and any "veggie" that you can make a flour out of (corn, lentils, beans, etc) are not veggies.

    It makes me angry when hospitals and restaurants say they are providing a vegetable and you end up with "mixed vegetables" that consist of Lima beans, carrots, potatoes, corn, peas, and finally a few real veggies, green beans. Or the "upscale" blend of summer squash, yellow squash, carrots, and if you're lucky, cauliflower. What's worse, the nutritional specialists at these facilities say they are performing as trained!
  • naomigee161
    naomigee161 Posts: 41 Member
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    The UK guidelines are 7 a day (so 5 veg, 2 fruit, or 7 veg)

    a serving (uncooked) is 85g

    I probably get between 5-7 a day depending. we usually have 3-4 of veg on the side with dinner, plus 1-2 in the main dinner meal, 1-2 in homemade soup at lunchtime, plus any fruit I have during the day (raisins, apple, banana, satsumas)
  • TheGymGypsy
    TheGymGypsy Posts: 1,023 Member
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    Most days I get at least 4. Banana for potassium, apple for mid morning snack, salad w/lunch or dinner, plus another cup or more of vegetables with dinner. the kicker is knowing which "vegetables" are truly vegetables and not carbs. All but one squash, all root vegetables, and any "veggie" that you can make a flour out of (corn, lentils, beans, etc) are not veggies.

    It makes me angry when hospitals and restaurants say they are providing a vegetable and you end up with "mixed vegetables" that consist of Lima beans, carrots, potatoes, corn, peas, and finally a few real veggies, green beans. Or the "upscale" blend of summer squash, yellow squash, carrots, and if you're lucky, cauliflower. What's worse, the nutritional specialists at these facilities say they are performing as trained!

    It's better then a lot of things they could be serving them.
  • naomigee161
    naomigee161 Posts: 41 Member
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    and any "veggie" that you can make a flour out of (corn, lentils, beans, etc) are not veggies.

    in the UK, chickpeas, beans and lentils count as a vegetable portion (3 heaped tbsps) but they can only be counted once. so if you had 3tbsps each of chickpeas, beans and lentils in one day it would only count as 1 veg portion. :)
  • KimJohnsonsmile
    KimJohnsonsmile Posts: 222 Member
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    I get my 5 servings 95% of the time. At least 3 servings are in my smoothie every morning, I usually have an apple for a midday snack, and I generally have salad w/ my dinner.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I *try* but I don't always get them. I have a sweet tooth so veggies are not exactly the first thing that I want to eat when I get hungry, and fruit don't have enough protein and typically don't fill me up, unless I have them with Greek yogurt or something.
  • DymonNdaRgh40
    DymonNdaRgh40 Posts: 661 Member
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    I usually hit the five a day, sometimes more.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    I'm not a huge fan of veggies but try to eat 2 servings with dinner and if I make my breakfast casserole, that's another serving (lots of spinach). Fruit servings vary but I get 3/day on average.
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
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    Easily without even trying. It's pretty remarkable considering my typical day a few years ago would be cereal, toast, banana, bagel or pastries for breakfast, fast food or a sandwich for lunch and meat, side dish and veggies for dinner -- so maybe two or three servings a day. Now, just about every meal I make is half vegetables. I had bacon & cabbage for breakfast and a chuck roast for dinner so not a high veggie day at all but I'll still have about 500g or 600g of garlic, onions, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and celery by the end of the day.
  • JenSD6
    JenSD6 Posts: 454 Member
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    Eating more fruit is definitely on my list of things I need to do better. I'm not a sweets person, so when I'm looking for a snack, I'm not looking for fruit.

    I love fruit, and in blueberry season I'll eat an entire case by myself. And I happily indulge in the blackberries that grow wild around our neighbourhood. But most of my fruit consumption the rest of the year comes from the bottom of my yogurt cup.
  • VoodooSyxx
    VoodooSyxx Posts: 297
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    So what exactly is a "serving"? A cup? I usually have at least 4 cups of veggies just at dinner. A few more during the day, and a banana or something with my breakfast shake.
  • BigVeggieDream
    BigVeggieDream Posts: 1,101 Member
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    Well, yesterday I had 8 servings and today I have 5 and that's only through lunch and I had a very light breakfast.
  • judyde
    judyde Posts: 401 Member
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    This is a great question. I'm working hard to hit my protein goals, and find there's not a lot of room for veggies. I try to squeeze in some chocolate, but with eating at a deficit, my diary is a lot of dairy and meat and not a lot of veggies. I do take a multivitamin.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    I don't eat much in the way of fruit (it's either expensive or doesn't store well, and I only shop once a month) but most days I get through 1-2 lbs of frozen vegetables. Not sure how many servings that is.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,741 Member
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    I'd say my average is around 5 a day. 1 fruit usually and 3-5 servings of veggies. But then there are days like yesterday, when I ate this ENORMOUS veggie stir fry for dinner...the sno peas alone I'd say were at least 3 servings of vegetables so in the whole entrée there were probably 8. That would mean I had about 10 servings of fruits/veg yesterday. Some days it might just be 3-4.

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