So, how many of you get 9 servings of fruit and vegetables a day?

Gamliela wrote: »

crazyycatladyy1 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

We're reporting in, are we? Today was veggie-ful.

100g frozen mixed berries
150g black beans (refried but nonfat (?))
100g onions
70g orange bell pepper
215g tomatoes
62g salsa (yeah, that has a little vinegar in there, but mostly veg)
107g apricots
28g olives
134g jicama
81g carrots
128g turnips
26g avocado
147g cucumber
57g romaine lettuce
49g spinach
28g mesquite broad bean snack (so a few non-bean grams in there)

So, even adjusting for the two or three "highly processed foods" (LOL) in there, something over 1400g of veggies & fruit, which I guess is around 18 servings (though I did count all the beans).

Heh.

Nice!

My yesterday consisted of toast (sprouted, whole grains so that has to count for something right?), prescription drugs, more prescription drugs and caramel M&Ms.

Having shingles SUCKS

I have so much fresh produce in my fridge right now (I did a big grocery trip on Monday, was diagnosed with shingles on Wednesday), but the meds and pain are making me so nausea I can't really eat. Meds must be causing water retention though because my scale was up 4lbs this morning grrrr....

Crazycatlady, I'm really sorry to hear you got shingles. I would think some of the 4 pounds is from the water retention of inflammation. I never felt as inflammed as when I had shingles. Only thing to hang onto is that it should run its course in a week. Once it was gone, it was as if I had never had it, so that is something to look forward to, there is an end to it! and toast can be comforting.

It's either inflammation or the M&Ms I actually only ate about 10 of them before my stomach started revolting, so it's probably inflammation. I'm now out of my maintenance range but I'm not too worried about it. I'm on (generic) Valtrex and then also Amitriptyline, which is supposed to help with the nerve pain. That one came with a huge packet of warning papers though-I guess it can make you suicidal oiy. Of course having shingles is enough to do that I have one of the lesions on my eyelid, so that's freaking out my doctor (already been to an ophthalmologist once and will be going back again next week), and it feels like someone is using sandpaper on my face sigh.... I just started going back to bi-weekly grocery shopping (did this years ago and it worked well, when I was disciplined about it), so I stocked my fridge with fresh produce to eat this week and then frozen produce for next week. It's killing me to see the fresh slowly wilting away, but I just can't stomach it right now.

I would say near 9 servings more or less. I just make sure I don't go too crazy with the fruits (even though I love them ) like I did back then for juices and smoothies. It spiked my blood sugar level like crazy and my doctor freaked. Haha! Majority of the time I eat cooked veggies with my meats and carbs for lunch and dinner.

I need to find more information on how much is actually a serving. The bagged kale I buy indicates that a serving is 5 cups of kale. So, I can just eat 45 cups of kale a day and hit my 9 servings? I think I'd die.

Ha! I just went to the American Heart Association website and it turns out a cup of raw leafy greens is a serving. So, my 2 'servings' of kale is more than enough.. lol Thank goodness! I imagine whoever packages the kale I buy must be thinking they can pull a fast one and trick people into trying to eat 9 bags of kale a day. Wonder if anyone's done it?

livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

jenniferinfl wrote: »

I need to find more information on how much is actually a serving. The bagged kale I buy indicates that a serving is 5 cups of kale. So, I can just eat 45 cups of kale a day and hit my 9 servings? I think I'd die.

Ha! I just went to the American Heart Association website and it turns out a cup of raw leafy greens is a serving. So, my 2 'servings' of kale is more than enough.. lol Thank goodness! I imagine whoever packages the kale I buy must be thinking they can pull a fast one and trick people into trying to eat 9 bags of kale a day. Wonder if anyone's done it?

The serving size in the British system where they recommend 10 servings is 80g I think...

I found it.. I guess for cooked kale they say that's around 4 heaped tablespoons, which is about a cup raw.. So, it's all pretty close. Though, next time I will buy a food scale that measures in grams. Mine measures in ounces and tenths of ounces.

I eat anywhere from 10-12 portions a day of fruits and veggies. My digestion is loving it and so am I :-) I'm in Canada and since I dropped meat 6 years ago, my grocery bill is approx. 15-20% lower. You just have to but what's in season and what's on sale. And I buy more plant based food now than I ever did.
*edited to add in cost of food*

I always consider a cup of greens to be a serving. (If you eat a lot of greens, as I try to, the servings don't match up to the 800 g=10 servings.)

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

French_Peasant wrote: »

jenniferinfl wrote: »

I need to find more information on how much is actually a serving. The bagged kale I buy indicates that a serving is 5 cups of kale. So, I can just eat 45 cups of kale a day and hit my 9 servings? I think I'd die.

Ha! I just went to the American Heart Association website and it turns out a cup of raw leafy greens is a serving. So, my 2 'servings' of kale is more than enough.. lol Thank goodness! I imagine whoever packages the kale I buy must be thinking they can pull a fast one and trick people into trying to eat 9 bags of kale a day. Wonder if anyone's done it?

Are you sure the bag doesn't say .5 cups of kale? As that is a standard serving size. If not, I would assume that the printing of the decimal was off, and not that someone was trying to get people to buy more kale.

I just checked my bag of rainbow kale and it says a serving size is 2.5 cups (85g). Seems like a lot, but perhaps it's just up to the packing company to put whatever they want on the bag as long as the nutritional information is accurate.

Maybe it IS an evil kale plot to take over the universe.

French_Peasant wrote: »

jenniferinfl wrote: »

I need to find more information on how much is actually a serving. The bagged kale I buy indicates that a serving is 5 cups of kale. So, I can just eat 45 cups of kale a day and hit my 9 servings? I think I'd die.

Ha! I just went to the American Heart Association website and it turns out a cup of raw leafy greens is a serving. So, my 2 'servings' of kale is more than enough.. lol Thank goodness! I imagine whoever packages the kale I buy must be thinking they can pull a fast one and trick people into trying to eat 9 bags of kale a day. Wonder if anyone's done it?

Are you sure the bag doesn't say .5 cups of kale? As that is a standard serving size. If not, I would assume that the printing of the decimal was off, and not that someone was trying to get people to buy more kale.

It's a big bag and it actually shows that there's only one serving in the bag. Which is funny, because the newer bag now says that a serving is 2.5 cups and there are 2 servings in the bag. (I have 5 bags of kale in my fridge right now, we eat a lot of kale here. Also my tortoise and rats eat it, so, always tons of kale)

I'm relieved that a serving is 1 cup raw kale or 4 heaping tablespoons cooked kale. That's a lot easier. So, yes, it turns out I'm definitely eating 9+servings per day.

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Heh, this is reminding me of why I initially decided that counting servings of vegetables was silly and just focusing on making a significant portion of each meal (half to three-fourths of the plate, at least) vegetables made more sense.

The US Guidelines say a "cup" of vegetables or two cups of greens is a serving. But cups and vegetables is a dumb measure (except for greens).

The UK recommendations are decent on most vegetables with the 80 g (my own personal guideline had been 100 g before that, because 100 is a round number), but then suggest 3 heaping tablespoons for things like spinach and kale (and peas, which are a legume in my mind). Who measures greens, even cooked greens, in tablespoons?

I'm doubling down on my preference for just recommending eating lots of and a variety of vegetables.

No kidding, it's easy to measure leafy greens in a cup, but, everything else just doesn't work. Measuring a cup of celery for instance.. lol If I had a scale that measured in grams, that would work great for everything. I may just buy one and just be done with it.

I've always felt awfully guilty about not eating enough veggies. I keep making these mental notes to work on it a bit more. I'm so relieved I can quit worrying about that! I'm way over when I count the tomatoes and carrots and blueberries and everything else I eat.

jenniferinfl wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

jenniferinfl wrote: »

I need to find more information on how much is actually a serving. The bagged kale I buy indicates that a serving is 5 cups of kale. So, I can just eat 45 cups of kale a day and hit my 9 servings? I think I'd die.

Ha! I just went to the American Heart Association website and it turns out a cup of raw leafy greens is a serving. So, my 2 'servings' of kale is more than enough.. lol Thank goodness! I imagine whoever packages the kale I buy must be thinking they can pull a fast one and trick people into trying to eat 9 bags of kale a day. Wonder if anyone's done it?

Package serving sizes have nothing to do with recommended for health servings. But the 5 cups per servings is probably assuming you will cook it. 5 cups raw will cook down to about 1 - 1.5 cooked.

Perhaps, but, the serving size is one cup raw or 4 heaping tbsps cooked for Kale. So, even that doesn't work out.

I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't work out". That one cup doesn't cook down to 4 heaping tbsps.? That would be correct. In the US the recommendation is 1 cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked. I assume the difference is that some nutrients are destroyed during the cooking process so you need to need to eat more cooked, but that's totally a guess.

dfwesq wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

jenniferinfl wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

jenniferinfl wrote: »

I need to find more information on how much is actually a serving. The bagged kale I buy indicates that a serving is 5 cups of kale. So, I can just eat 45 cups of kale a day and hit my 9 servings? I think I'd die.

Ha! I just went to the American Heart Association website and it turns out a cup of raw leafy greens is a serving. So, my 2 'servings' of kale is more than enough.. lol Thank goodness! I imagine whoever packages the kale I buy must be thinking they can pull a fast one and trick people into trying to eat 9 bags of kale a day. Wonder if anyone's done it?

Package serving sizes have nothing to do with recommended for health servings. But the 5 cups per servings is probably assuming you will cook it. 5 cups raw will cook down to about 1 - 1.5 cooked.

Perhaps, but, the serving size is one cup raw or 4 heaping tbsps cooked for Kale. So, even that doesn't work out.

I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't work out". That one cup doesn't cook down to 4 heaping tbsps.? That would be correct. In the US the recommendation is 1 cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked. I assume the difference is that some nutrients are destroyed during the cooking process so you need to need to eat more cooked, but that's totally a guess.

I think it's based on the average volume of cooked vs. raw vegetables, bearing mind that in the US, most foods are measured by volume. The recommendations for how much to eat don't take the nutrition of different kinds of fruits and vegetables prepared in different ways into account. There's too much variation for that to be practical.

But 1 cup of most leafy greens cooks down to far less than 1/2 cup. That was the discrepancy I was talking about. With heavy or dense greens like cabbage 1 C raw might = 1/2 C cooked, but not with things like spinach, arugula, etc.

jenniferinfl wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Heh, this is reminding me of why I initially decided that counting servings of vegetables was silly and just focusing on making a significant portion of each meal (half to three-fourths of the plate, at least) vegetables made more sense.

The US Guidelines say a "cup" of vegetables or two cups of greens is a serving. But cups and vegetables is a dumb measure (except for greens).

The UK recommendations are decent on most vegetables with the 80 g (my own personal guideline had been 100 g before that, because 100 is a round number), but then suggest 3 heaping tablespoons for things like spinach and kale (and peas, which are a legume in my mind). Who measures greens, even cooked greens, in tablespoons?

I'm doubling down on my preference for just recommending eating lots of and a variety of vegetables.

No kidding, it's easy to measure leafy greens in a cup, but, everything else just doesn't work. Measuring a cup of celery for instance.. lol If I had a scale that measured in grams, that would work great for everything. I may just buy one and just be done with it.

I've always felt awfully guilty about not eating enough veggies. I keep making these mental notes to work on it a bit more. I'm so relieved I can quit worrying about that! I'm way over when I count the tomatoes and carrots and blueberries and everything else I eat.

Do get a digital scale. Makes measuring ever so much easier!

Never. I am a rebel.

In all seriousness, I get about 3-4 servings of veg on a good day and maybe 3-4 servings of fruit a week.

dfwesq wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

dfwesq wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

jenniferinfl wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

jenniferinfl wrote: »

I need to find more information on how much is actually a serving. The bagged kale I buy indicates that a serving is 5 cups of kale. So, I can just eat 45 cups of kale a day and hit my 9 servings? I think I'd die.

Ha! I just went to the American Heart Association website and it turns out a cup of raw leafy greens is a serving. So, my 2 'servings' of kale is more than enough.. lol Thank goodness! I imagine whoever packages the kale I buy must be thinking they can pull a fast one and trick people into trying to eat 9 bags of kale a day. Wonder if anyone's done it?

Package serving sizes have nothing to do with recommended for health servings. But the 5 cups per servings is probably assuming you will cook it. 5 cups raw will cook down to about 1 - 1.5 cooked.

Perhaps, but, the serving size is one cup raw or 4 heaping tbsps cooked for Kale. So, even that doesn't work out.

I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't work out". That one cup doesn't cook down to 4 heaping tbsps.? That would be correct. In the US the recommendation is 1 cup raw or 1/2 cup cooked. I assume the difference is that some nutrients are destroyed during the cooking process so you need to need to eat more cooked, but that's totally a guess.

I think it's based on the average volume of cooked vs. raw vegetables, bearing mind that in the US, most foods are measured by volume. The recommendations for how much to eat don't take the nutrition of different kinds of fruits and vegetables prepared in different ways into account. There's too much variation for that to be practical.

But 1 cup of most leafy greens cooks down to far less than 1/2 cup. That was the discrepancy I was talking about. With heavy or dense greens like cabbage 1 C raw might = 1/2 C cooked, but not with things like spinach, arugula, etc.

Maybe we're talking about different things. I thought we were talking about what the recommended serving size of all vegetables is.

Btw, the cooking method can result in different volumes. Using kale as an example, sauteeing doesn't reduce the volume as much as boiling.

LOL We are and we aren't. I was just musing on why the recommendation is 1 cup leafy raw and 1/2 cup leafy cooked, when for many leafy vegetables 1/2 cup cooked takes considerably more than 1 cup raw.

Yes, agree. The green and the length of cooking makes a difference.

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

...I was just musing on why the recommendation is 1 cup leafy raw and 1/2 cup leafy cooked, when for many leafy vegetables 1/2 cup cooked takes considerably more than 1 cup raw.
...

I think they just wanted to come up with an across-the-board estimate to make the guideline practical.