5 a day is a recommendation to eat fruit and vegetables every day.
Do you know ...
Watch this video about the importance of fruit and vegetables to find the answers. There is a transcript to help you understand better.
Fruit and veg are so rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre and they're low in fat,
but what's really interesting is that there's worldwide research to show
that eating five portions of fruit and veg a day can help to reduce the
incidence of diseases such as cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
It's really important because what we have in our bodies are free radicals.
These are substances that cause inflammatory reactions in our body.
Fruit and vegetables are rich in what we call antioxidants and research
is showing that if you have 400g a day, which is equivalent roughly to five
portions of fruit and veg a day, then you are protecting yourself against
that free radical damage.
Each portion represents one serving or one portion of your five a day.
Woman I don't know. I thought an apple was one portion. I don't know, maybe... I honestly don't know, actually.
Woman Take... No. I just eat two pieces of fruit a day. And try and eat as much vegetables as possible. I guess one cup of vegetables is one portion. I don't know.
For example, one portion of your five a day could be a banana or
a pear, an apple, an orange, roughly a handful of grapes or cherries
or strawberries.
When it comes to vegetables, beans and pulses count once a day,
so three tablespoons of any beans, such as baked beans or chickpeas
or kidney beans.
No matter how much you have, they will count once a day.
The reason for that is that they don't have quite the same range of
nutrients as the other fruits and vegetables.
A bowl of salad, for example, or in terms of salad vegetables,
something like a five-centimetre stick of cucumber, not quite a whole
carrot there, an average tomato.
Other vegetables, around three tablespoons of any type of vegetable
will count towards your five a day, that would be one portion each,
and an average-sized glass of unsweetened fruit juice again will count
just once a day, no matter how much you drink, because you have
stripped the fruit of its natural fibre.
In terms of dried fruit also, about a heaped tablespoon of any dried fruit
counts, and even canned fruit will count, three tablespoons.
Man Recently I've been eating five a day veg and fruit because I've got two
young children, so obviously we're trying to give them a decent diet, so it's made me think more.
Man I just try and dump as much into a stir-fry as possible. Dinner's usually quite a vegetabley-type meal. So probably two for dinner in the evening. Lunchtime, try to get a salad.
In terms of snacks in the office, it's really quite easy to have an apple
or a pear in your desk drawer or perhaps to take some dried fruit and
have that on the way to work.
Or have a smoothie is another way if you've missed breakfast,
which I'm not advocating, but that's another way to try and have something.
Man I never used to, but now I find I've got an apple or a banana in my bag,
which I'm getting used to now, so rather than go and get my customary
Mars bar, I snack on that. I'm probably eating better now than I did all my life, really.
If you're worried about trying to incorporate five a day into your diet,
just start with one more.
So look at what you're eating, add one more and gradually add another one.
It could be as simple as just taking a piece of fruit to work or having some
dried fruit in your desk next to you or having some salad with your sandwich
at lunchtime.
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