I aim for nine serves of fruit/veg a day I find it's not actually that hard.2. To eat 5 portions of fruit and veg each day. Does anyone else struggle with this? I don't ever feel like THAT much fruit and veg. It's pretty expensive too when you consider that it amounts to 35 portions a week. McDonalds is much cheaper ;-)
Becky
Most days I have a piece of fruit or two throughout the day as snacks. If not fruit, I'll have a salad or munch on celery or peppers or snow pea pods or something. I think red/orange/yellow capsicum (peppers) are exactly the right thing for snacking - sweet, crispy, satisfying on so many levels! They travel well in plastic bags, too.
For lunch I either have at least a serve on a sandwich and then I try to have a salad or veggies on the side, too, or I make a salad or quickie stirfry leftovers for about 2+ cups of food. Depending on what you've got in the mix, that can be four serves of veg right there.
At dinner, at least half of my plate is veggies and I'll get between 3-5 serves there.
I love veggies so I try to have a ton of different colours and textures through the day. Right now I'm digging purple cabbage, spinach and snow pea pods in addition to all the time favs capsicums (except green - ours are almost always bitter). Ooo, and radishes when we get good ones in.
Dang it, now you have me thinking about lunch and I haven't even had breakky yet!
Here's a little guideline I found, you might be surprised at how many serves you're actually getting:
A serving of fruit is:
- 6 oz (3/4 cup) fruit juice
- 1 medium whole fruit (banana, apple, peach, orange, etc.)
- 1/4 cup dried fruit (raisins, apricots, prunes, etc.)
- 1/2 cup fresh, frozen, or canned fruit (berries, melon, grapes, etc.)
A serving of vegetables is:
- 1 cup raw, leafy vegetables
- 1/2 cup cooked vegetables
- 6 oz vegetable juice
I couldn't tell you the last time I ate at McD's or similar! Not even while we're in Perth or I'm on holiday. I think I tried to eat a burger from Burger King (Hungry Jack's) while I was in the US last October (it might have been the trip before that) - but I took one bite and it sucked so bad I tossed it out LOL Never have liked BK/HJ, though...heheheh - i havent been to maccas for ages (how good to say that)