10 portions of fruit and veg a day

yes my Dr has recommended 10 servings to all her patients for several years now. I find it easy to do .

I'm definitely going to aim for this. I've been trying to do seven portions a day since January so this'll be a nice extra boost!!

I easily put away over 800g of veggies a day, as long as I'm not having a *kitten it all* day.

VeryKatie wrote: »

Whoa. Just realized my 270 gram apple would count as over 3 servings a day if we're going with 80 g a serving lol. How much would guacamole count for lol. Maybe 0.5 hahah. So I'm at 5.9 servings today then. Hmm. Though... I guess I don't usually have carrots too so that is bumping me up today.

Also... 80 g of lettuce would be a lot of lettuce.

Nope, not really.... Especially if you have something watery like iceberg or cos.

I would easily eat 10+ without trying - most meals are loaded with vegies! I love them, and choose them over other things - I'd rather have a bowl of zoodles instead of pasta for example. So I can have dessert (which generally includes fruit)

Most of my meals are probably hitting 800g of vegies on their own.

In Australia, a serve of vegies is about 75g, and a serve of fruit about 150g, so if you go by the UK guidelines, our recommendations would equal nearly 9 of their serves anyway.

VeryKatie wrote: »

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(snip by reply-er)
Also... 80 g of lettuce would be a lot of lettuce.

Nah. Yesterday's spinach salad had 95g of just spinach, just a nice salad bowl of it - not even thinking about the 132g of tomatoes and 202g of cucumber.

Sadly, I only had 65g of Spinach left for today's salad.

as of right now im not eating fruit, im eating 4 12oz serving of veggies per day lots of fiber and good fats from fish oil caps, and protein of course

I made the mistake of having 764 grams of vegetables in one meal a few days ago. I can handle 350 in a meal, but 764 was way too much.

Tum22 wrote: »

It used to be five and now it is recommended to eat ten portions a day to avoid deaths from cancers/strokes and heart attacks. And what do you think is the best way to do this?

idk, i'm old enough to be cynical. i remember when it was four, and more and more i suspect they're just making this up.

n1cholee93 wrote: »

What i don't understand is why they group everyone into an "average". Why should a 200lb man vs a 170 lbs man eat the same amount of fruits and vegetables? Or why a 120 lbs female should eat the same? It's never made sense to me, personally. Though i think *most* people do need to eat more i think it greatly ranges from person to person. I can't remember the exact website but they had a forumal that went based on weight to give you a round about answer that seemed to make more sense. I aim for about 3-4 servings and i seem to be doing good...

Don't overthink this kind of message!
It's really not targeted at people who use MFP - we mostly have a good handle on calorie needs and macros and that kind of stuff.

I think it's an attempt at setting a simple goal that everyone can understand and work towards, that is likely to be beneficial for their health. Just about every healthy eating guide I've ever seen encourages eating fruit and veg (in varying proportions) and it's something positive people can do and feel good about.
It might encourage swapping snacks that are more calorie dense and possibly less nutritious and lead to positive eating behaviours across the generations.
Note that I'm not saying all calorie dense foods are bad (clearly many are very good for you) or that there is anything wrong with having less nutritious/treat foods as part of an overall balanced diet, but as so many countries are seeing a rise in obesity, then this simple message is likely to be helpful for some people and may start them on the track of eating better.

I remember listening to a conference presentation several years ago that talked about a program providing fruit every day for all the kids at school in a remote town. It was one of those remote places in Australia where there are few shopping options, fresh food (all food actually) has to be trucked in and is expensive, and many families had significant health or social issues. Over time they noted a significant decrease in ear infections and an improvement in general health, and they were looking to expand the program to provide fruit and veg boxes to families to see if they could have an impact on health in the community generally.

Clearly it takes more than just adding an apple every day to improve someone's health, but it can be a small step in the right direction for some people so I am a fan of all these kind of "eat more fruit and veg" programs, regardless of what numbers they are trying to encourage this time.