Did you know 5 a day is just 400 g?

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MarinaPacheco
MarinaPacheco Posts: 95 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I was trying to work out exactly how any bits of fruit and veg I had to eat to hit my 5 a day and was surprised to find out it's a lot less than I'd thought at only 400 g (around 14 oz). Considering an average apple is 150 g you can see how quickly you can reach that target.

I got this from: http://www.igd.com/index.asp?id=1&fid=1&sid=4&tid=46&cid=112 amongst others.
"The advice to eat a specific quantity of fruit and vegetables came from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991. They recommended consuming a minimum intake of 400g fruit and vegetables a day. One portion of fruit and vegetables is 80g, so five portions add up to 400g."

You can count one cup of 100% fruit juice as a portion, but that's it, it's one portion no matter how much you drink in the day be that one glass or five. You can also count beans and pulses as one portion, again irrespective of how much you eat, so you could have 400 g of beans and it would only count as one portion.

Hope that's useful to people, it just showed me that I am easily able to meet that target. Of course that's a minimum guideline, the wording is that you should eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day.

Replies

  • castadiva
    castadiva Posts: 2,016 Member
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    Not that it's bad advice, and it certainly won't hurt, but did you know that the whole 5-a-day campaign was funded by the Fruits and Vegetables Growers of America (I think that's what they're called, but their industry body, at least!)? Talk about self-interest in public health! 400g is a much more accurate quantity to aim for, but it's great to shoot for 5 a day - just don't panic if you don't make it!
  • insidelane
    insidelane Posts: 8 Member
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    Not that it's bad advice, and it certainly won't hurt, but did you know that the whole 5-a-day campaign was funded by the Fruits and Vegetables Growers of America (I think that's what they're called, but their industry body, at least!)? Talk about self-interest in public health! 400g is a much more accurate quantity to aim for, but it's great to shoot for 5 a day - just don't panic if you don't make it!

    yeah I don't think it's a massive hidden agenda when they are trying to make a country healthy...

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