Serving Sizes for Fruit and Vegetables

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  • alida1walsh
    alida1walsh Posts: 72 Member
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    Thank you. You've done an amazing job! I'll certainly use it, especially for my kids.

    I try to encourage my kids to eat 2 servings of fruit and 5 servings of vegetables per day but it's hard to work out what that really means. Your chart is a great help.
  • Hearts_2015
    Hearts_2015 Posts: 12,031 Member
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    Lovee_Dove7 wrote: »
    chastity0921 wrote: »
    Thank you for making the chart. Its nice to have a guide for times when I'm away from my scale!

    This! :)
    @ChristieisReady


    Exactly what came to my mind! :smiley: Thanks for making up the chart as I imagine it took some time. I recognized Jicama but didn't realize they were also referred to as Yambeans. nom nom
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
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    Personally, (and this is my personally and I don't expect it to apply to anyone else) I find these serving sizes to be far too small. Based on my calorie goals I'd eat much more.

    My "rule of thumb" is: "How much can I fit in and still hit macros"... whatever that amount happens to be is for me, a serving size. If I break up macro percentages by meal, it makes it simplest but my serving sizes match my calorie goals and are often rather large... especially of veg since it's so calorically light depending on the vegetable.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    A serving size for anything is how much I feel like eating. I weigh it on the scale and have at it.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,964 Member
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    ChristieisReady wrote: »

    This is a quick takeaway for me to know that I'm getting at least 7 servings of fruit and vegetables a day. I thought it might be useful to someone else.

    OK, I guess I can understand that. I get a little frustrated by those "serving" recommendations too. But what was the source for deciding that these are the amounts that satisfy the recommendation that you should have at least 7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day? Is it the same organization recommending 7 servings and defining what a serving is? Do they say what criteria they used in defining the serving for different fruits and vegetables?

    Plus, there's such disparity among the nutritional value of the various servings. A half cup of cucumber or celery doesn't offer as much value to me in terms of nutrients as half cup of blueberries or cooked spinach.

  • ChristieisReady
    ChristieisReady Posts: 708 Member
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    There's such disparity among the nutritional value of the various servings. A half cup of cucumber or celery doesn't offer as much value to me in terms of nutrients as half cup of blueberries or cooked spinach.

    That much is true. But I got these from several different health/government sources, such as the USDA and WHO. It probably WOULD make more sense to quantify a serving by caloric or fiber or glucose content, but that's not what the people guiding nutritional minimums are doing. I myself eat more than a cup of vegetables at any given time, but I made this to make sure I was meeting MINIMUMS. And to make sure, when I feed my nieces and nephews, that I'm meeting their dietary needs as well.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    The WHO's serving size for "five a day" policies is 80 grams isn't it ? That would make some apples almost two servings.
  • cw106
    cw106 Posts: 952 Member
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    yarwell wrote: »
    The WHO's serving size for "five a day" policies is 80 grams isn't it ? That would make some apples almost two servings.

    Agree.
    80g is the standard.
  • ChristieisReady
    ChristieisReady Posts: 708 Member
    edited January 2016
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    .
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    ChristieisReady wrote: »
    I'm a fairly well-educated woman, but as an American, I have no real frame of reference for "grams". Ounces, yes. Grams, no.

    1 gram = about 2 paper clips
  • ChristieisReady
    ChristieisReady Posts: 708 Member
    edited January 2016
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    yarwell wrote: »
    The WHO's serving size for "five a day" policies is 80 grams isn't it ? That would make some apples almost two servings.
    Hence the caveat of "medium apple". Which is about 2 3/4" in diameter. Seriously, you guys. You are telling me that you believe that a person who cannot differentiate between a "small" and "medium" apple CAN look at it and go "well, that's about 80 grams"? Who are these savants and where do you find them?


    I'm a fairly well-educated woman, but as an American, I have no real frame of reference for "grams". Ounces, yes. Grams, no.
  • CooCooPuff
    CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
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    ChristieisReady wrote: »
    I'm a fairly well-educated woman, but as an American, I have no real frame of reference for "grams". Ounces, yes. Grams, no.
    screen.png

  • ChristieisReady
    ChristieisReady Posts: 708 Member
    edited January 2016
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    Thank you @CooCooPuff , I too can use google. But This is meant to be a QUICK REFERENCE chart. Like, I'm at work, there is free salad, about how much of my base requirement does that cover.

    80 grams is 1/6 of a pound? The **** kind of tiny apples are 6 to a lb?

    As a group, you are aggravating and ridiculous. I maintain that this is why your friends do not like you.

  • Acidique
    Acidique Posts: 119 Member
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    All I know is, when I weigh my apples, I've had them vary in calories from 85 - 150. That adds up when you have an apple daily. *shrug*
  • ChristieisReady
    ChristieisReady Posts: 708 Member
    edited January 2016
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    You honestly can't look at an apple and say "that looks quite a bit larger than yesterday's apple, it must have proportionately more calories. I should probably consider it as a 'large' apple, which is about a serving and a half"?

    ALSO, on precise measurements, do you weigh the core when you're done to see how much you didn't eat? Do you account for the caloric difference in core and seeds vs. flesh? Just how much time are you devoting to this exact study of how many kCals are entering your body?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    ChristieisReady wrote: »
    You honestly can't look at an apple and say "that looks quite a bit larger than yesterday's apple, it must have proportionately more calories. I should probably consider it as a 'large' apple, which is about a serving and a half"?

    I think this assumes that some of us have the ability to compare the size of a piece of fruit to the size of yesterday's fruit, which isn't a skill that we all have. Apples or bananas will look the same to me, but when I weigh them I can have significant variances.

    If you have the ability to distinguish between a medium and large apple, that's awesome. But studies have shown that many people are terrible at estimating portion size and the scale can be a very useful tool for them.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    ChristieisReady wrote: »
    Thank you @CooCooPuff , I too can use google. But This is meant to be a QUICK REFERENCE chart. Like, I'm at work, there is free salad, about how much of my base requirement does that cover.

    80 grams is 1/6 of a pound? The **** kind of tiny apples are 6 to a lb?

    As a group, you are aggravating and ridiculous. I maintain that this is why your friends do not like you.

    And that is extremely rude and I can't imagine that you have any friend if you're saying those things as soon as someone disagrees with you. Wow. Do you personally know everyone in this thread? I'm seriously shaking my head here.
    Acidique wrote: »
    All I know is, when I weigh my apples, I've had them vary in calories from 85 - 150. That adds up when you have an apple daily. *shrug*

    You know, I've weighed all my apples for a long time (edible part, obviously), and I've yet to see any apple that is 150 calories, so I'm a little bit confused. Most of my bigger apples come out at 90 calories once I remove the core (although I guess that I remove a bit more than the core). That's using a USDA entry for the type of apple that I eat too.

    Seriously confused about apples now.

    That being said, volume entries are sorta useful when you go out to eat and have to guesstimate, but at the same time, once you weigh your food long enough, you pretty much know what 80g of broccoli looks like.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    ChristieisReady wrote: »
    You honestly can't look at an apple and say "that looks quite a bit larger than yesterday's apple, it must have proportionately more calories. I should probably consider it as a 'large' apple, which is about a serving and a half"?

    ALSO, on precise measurements, do you weigh the core when you're done to see how much you didn't eat? Do you account for the caloric difference in core and seeds vs. flesh? Just how much time are you devoting to this exact study of how many kCals are entering your body?

    I can't speak for everyone, but I do weigh the parts of the fruit I don't eat (peels, cores, etc). It takes a couple of seconds to weigh something, probably about as much time as it would take to look at an apple and compare it to the size of the apple that I ate yesterday.
  • faidwen
    faidwen Posts: 131 Member
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    Excellent, thank you very much!
  • OhMsDiva
    OhMsDiva Posts: 1,074 Member
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    I am just curious. I am supposed to eat 2 cups of veggies a day. I usually go over so I dont bother to measure, but if I can just weigh it on a scale it would be much easier. What would the equivalent of 2 cups be on a scale?

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