Latest research into the impact of eating fruit and vegetables on health are stating that we should all be eating 7 portions of fruit and veg per day, 2 portions more than the 5-a-day campaign that has been around for over 10 years now.
The recent study on over 65,000 men and women found reduced risk of “dying early” from eating more and more fruits and vegetables:
Risk of death reduction:
- 14% by eating one to three portions of fruit or veg per day
- 29% for three to five
- 36% for five to seven
- 42% for seven or more (up to around 10 portions a day
We all know we should be eating our greens but I’m hoping that we are all aware that the fresh route is the best: the study confirms this by stating fresh vegetables as having the biggest impact, followed by salad vegetables and then fruit.
Public health campaigners are claiming us Brits should be sticking to our 5-a-day statement as it is “easy to remember”, not to mention the fact that many people struggle to even meet this target, let alone 7-a-day. The same campaign is reiterrated around the world with portion guidelines from 3-9 a day.
My issue with either campaign is the phrase “portion”. I don’t think there is enough guidance on what a portion is exactly. For instance, one small tangerine does NOT consititue one portion and a massive glass of sugary cranberry juice does NOT consistute two.
Below is an image that was displayed outside my home economics room at school (back in 2005) which lays out some guidelines for portioning up your fruit and veg. Something else to bear in mind is that 5-a-day means 5 DIFFERENT fruits and vegetables. Another tip of mine is something I have recently learned during Nutrition lectures at university: over-consumption of fruit can be a bad thing. Drinking tonnes of fruit juice for the Vitamin C will only lead to high sugar intake and can be virtually pointless given that Vitamin C is not something our bodies can store surplus of: it will simply be excreted through urine. The same goes for eating mountains of spinach as our bodies are particularly bad at absorbing the iron in spinach. Why not try eating less of it in combination with something high in Vitamin C (like red peppers) which aids absorption of iron?
So, my challenge to you is to check that you really ARE eating your 5-a-day as designed, not 4 portions of orange juice at breakfast and 1/2 a portion of peas at dinner.
Read my post on colourful food for more informaiton on how varying the colours of your fruit & veg choices can be even better!
thefoodstudent 
Do aubergines count?!