Veg smoothie as alternative to eating? Also 5 a day (UK) newbie

Hi all,

Sorry I have 2 questions which sort of link together.

First off, I dislike eating vegetables and salad, I like fruit - I don't eat enough or barely any.

My first question as I need to start getting some vegetables and salad into my diet somehow and start slow. I have a blender and was thinking for example a dinner meal:
Chicken, brown rice and a vegetable smoothie - Spinach, leek, carrot.

Would this work?


5 a day (only a UK thing?), am I right in thinking, as found this site:
https://www.theboldage.com/here-s-what-one-portion-of-your-five-a-day-actually-looks-like

Would this be 1 item of each colour and that's the 5 a day? Or is it eat each colour 5 times a day?

Thank you

Replies

  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,528 Member
    @cjdavies82 I think 5 a day is just in reference to eating 5 servings of vegetables a day, no matter the color. O think the smoothies are a great way to get vegetables in as long as they're in addition to your regular meals, not replacing them.
  • littlegreenparrot1
    littlegreenparrot1 Posts: 694 Member
    It's 5 portions of fruit and veg a day as the recommended minimum.

    They don't have to be different colours, but the idea is that those of different colours have different nutrients, so if you get a range of colours you get good nutrition.

    So for example - glass of fruit juice with breakfast, salad leaves in your sandwich and an apple with your lunch, 2 types of veg with dinner.

    If you don't like veg much I would suggest trying roast veg, and having a go at making veg soup. A carrot soup for example can take a lot of paprika or curry powder that might make it more palatable for you.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    Worth a read of the NHS advice (it was based on WHO recommendations so not just a UK thing although different countries have different interpretations).

    https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day/why-5-a-day/

    You can also "lose" vegetables in your main dishes if you chop them finely, we used to do this when my daughter was a very picky eater as a child and young adult.
    e.g. Cottage pie but with decent amounts of carrots and onions "disguised" by chopping very finely in a mini-chopper, half lentils / half beef. That's 3 of her five a day (the potato topping wouldn't be counted despite mash being a healthy food - personally I think that not including starchy veg is a bit OTT).

    My daughter is now eats in a demi-veg way limiting her meat consumption and that followed on from years of experimentation including deciding to try new things three times before deciding whether she likes it or not, experimenting with new recipes and preparation methods. There's still many things she dislikes but there's also veg she loves plus fruit and veg which is OK but included in her diet for health. A lot of her dislikes were based on texture and mouth feel rather than taste so preparing those items differently helped a lot.
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
    I’m pretty sure the 5-a-day advice has been somewhat superseded by 10-a-day as a general recommendation.

    Either way, a portion is considered to be 80g so lettuce leaves in a sandwich, or a slice of tomato on a burger won’t really be sufficient to count as a portion. As already mentioned potatoes don’t count but I think Sweet Potatoes do.

    Only one of the counted portions can be fruit juice.

    I can’t even begin to imagine drinking down a blended chicken, rice and veg ‘smoothie’ but if you can do it, it would work in terms of comparative nutrition since the nutrients & fibre etc are still there, unlike a juiced product.

    I’d also suggest soups as a more palatable alternative, so much scope for hiding all sorts of vegetables in an almost endless variation of flavours. Also agree, ‘hiding’ vegetables in meals can work. Very finely grated carrot disappears into bolognese and chilli style dishes etc with just a few minutes of simmering, for example.

    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    @cjdavies82 I think 5 a day is just in reference to eating 5 servings of vegetables a day, no matter the color. O think the smoothies are a great way to get vegetables in as long as they're in addition to your regular meals, not replacing them.

    Why in addition? I don’t understand the reasoning behind that? The calories, fibre and nutrients are still present whether eaten with a knife and fork or blended and spooned or glugged down.
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    @BarbaraHelen2013 The first time I read the OP I also thought she meant blending all those foods into one and I thought gross! But I'm thinking she'd eat the chicken/rice, and have the additional blended veggie cocktail. Which to me still sounds kinda gross. :) I never even cared for V-8 juice. :/

    @cjdavies82 I wouldn't worry too much about required amounts. Do what you can and what you enjoy. If you have to force foods down because they're healthy or you feel you should, you're not going to be doing it long term. OTOH, you may find different foods/drinks you actually enjoy.

    I have blended spinach up in many smoothies and if you can get past the green-ness of the drink, they taste pretty good. But then, I do blend fruit together with it and blueberries overpower the green. :)
  • Sinisterbarbie1
    Sinisterbarbie1 Posts: 712 Member
    Tomato tomahto ….. what one calls a veggie smoothie someone else calls a blended soup. So it appears everyone agrees that vegetables can be eaten in whatever form you wish. I think people are just debating how they prefer to eat theirs and what to call it. Spaniards have been blending vegetables together in cold soup form for centuries and calling them Gazpacho (They have tomato, cucumber, pepper, grape, even almond). In the winter people in the US go nuts over butternut squash or pumpkin soups that are essentially roasted (or cooked some other way) butterrnut squash, blended together with chicken stock and herbs and often things like roasted onions, garlic and apples to complement the taste.

    As for Sollyn’s comment about the blended veggie concoctions being in addition to your meals (like sides) rather than replacements I am betting it was in the vein of the good advice most people on this site would also give that eating as normally as possible while losing weight is best and that one should not undertake “diets” that call for switching out standard meals with replacement meals while trying to lose weight, because that leads to regaining weight once you go back to a “normal lifestyle”. But incorporating cold or hot blended soups or smoothies or fresh veggie juices or whatever you decide to call your delicious concoctions should be something you continue to do forever as a lifestyle change.

    One last comment - a lot of nutritionists actually recommend having a small serving of clear/non cream soup as an appetizer before meals because it helps fill you up. Note though that whole veggies actually take up more volume than blended veggies so be careful about calorie loads of blended soups that contain anything starchy like squash or beans, peas or corn (and you already got the verdict on potatoes from other posters above) because those in particular will add up very quickly. You can also almost always skip adding any sort of dairy to blended soups and use a vegetable or chicken stock instead if you are watching calories. If you crave creaminess stir in a spoonful of fat free greek yogurt to your portion when eating.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,528 Member
    I’m pretty sure the 5-a-day advice has been somewhat superseded by 10-a-day as a general recommendation.

    Either way, a portion is considered to be 80g so lettuce leaves in a sandwich, or a slice of tomato on a burger won’t really be sufficient to count as a portion. As already mentioned potatoes don’t count but I think Sweet Potatoes do.

    Only one of the counted portions can be fruit juice.

    I can’t even begin to imagine drinking down a blended chicken, rice and veg ‘smoothie’ but if you can do it, it would work in terms of comparative nutrition since the nutrients & fibre etc are still there, unlike a juiced product.

    I’d also suggest soups as a more palatable alternative, so much scope for hiding all sorts of vegetables in an almost endless variation of flavours. Also agree, ‘hiding’ vegetables in meals can work. Very finely grated carrot disappears into bolognese and chilli style dishes etc with just a few minutes of simmering, for example.

    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    @cjdavies82 I think 5 a day is just in reference to eating 5 servings of vegetables a day, no matter the color. O think the smoothies are a great way to get vegetables in as long as they're in addition to your regular meals, not replacing them.

    Why in addition? I don’t understand the reasoning behind that? The calories, fibre and nutrients are still present whether eaten with a knife and fork or blended and spooned or glugged down.

    Because the only thing in her smoothie is vegetables. I'm pretty sure she wasn't talking about blending up her entire dinner into one giant meat, grain, vegetable smoothie. But I guess tgat depends on how you interpret the commas. One wouldn't try to survive off kale and carrots. Not only that, I'm not a proponent of meal replacement shakes. When it's blended down, it's not as filling
  • naturallykat
    naturallykat Posts: 115 Member
    edited June 2022
    Try lots of different recipes for preparing vegetables - there are so many different ways, you are bound to find something you like 👌 I'd suggest you also try all in one meals, so it's in the sauce, for example sweet & sour chicken with red peppers, pineapple chunks and onions, or a meaty curry with a tomato-based sauce.

    Try starting any meat dish with soffrito - either made or bought, which is finely chopped onion, celery and carrot, gently fried. You can start small quantity and work up, your taste buds will adapt.

    Also look up veg side dish recipes that roast the veg and dress it - roasted tends to make it caramelised, sweeter and nicer tasting, and the dressings can liven the taste up! To begin with, recipes that sweeten the veg may make it more palatable for you. Try a portion of roasted Mediterranean vegetables, roasted baby carrots, or roasted butternut squash cubes (buy frozen cubes, peeling and cutting butternut squash is a pain in the *kitten*!) with a honey and mustard dressing, or a maple and walnut glaze 🤤

    The ideal for 5 a day is in both quantity (NHS has a little video about what counts as one of your 5 a day), and variety (of colours and types), but Rome wasn't built in a day. If you're normally getting 0-1 a day, aim for something a bit better to begin with - maybe 1-2 portions consistently a day without worrying about variety, or if it would work better for you,
    aim for getting 5 different veg in a day but teeny tiny amounts to begin with? If that's too daunting how about trying 3 different veg per week? Better is still better :)
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    edited June 2022
    If you could drink that smoothie, it would be a fine way to get veg, but I love veg and would have a hard time drinking that. I'd focus instead on trying different ways to cook veg to see if you can learn to like them, and on things like veg in soup and stews and pastas and so on.

    I do like smoothies and think they could be a supplement if you are struggling with veg (or just as something tasty). Mine tend to be veg heavy, but have fruit or other things too. For example, strawberries, spinach or kale, avocado, and zucchini or cucumber is one. They can also be tasty with herbs -- blueberry, sage, spinach, and zucchini, for example. I tend to play around with combinations -- generally greens aren't that noticeable (kale more so than spinach, but still not so much), berries add a lot of flavor for few cals, melon can be really refreshing, and since I like a creamy smoothie I have some options that add texture -- avocado or winter squash are my favorites there. (I hate banana, I think it hijacks the taste and texture of whatever you have.) I also usually need protein and some fat in them (not an issue if they are the side to a meat course), so I typically add greek yogurt (which also adds a nice tartness) and sometimes nuts or seeds or a nut butter (but watch out for the cals). With other veg, it depends on what you have and the texture -- I think cauliflower is neutral, but the texture can be an issue, it depends on how long you blend it and what else you have with it. I like beets in one, but you can taste it -- I like beets, but I can see how it would be an issue for someone who does not. If you really are using it as a primary source of veg, I'd try other things like cabbage and broccoli too -- I tend to prefer those cooked, but if you mix them so the texture isn't weird I think the taste could fit in well enough.