5 A Day on a budget | Havering Directory (2024)

FAQs

What counts as 1 of your 5-a-day? ›

At a glance: what counts? 80g of fresh, canned or frozen fruit and vegetables counts as 1 portion of your 5 A Day (but not potatoes and some other starchy foods). For tinned or canned fruit and vegetables, choose those in natural juice or water, with no added sugar or salt.

Potatoes. Potatoes don't count towards your 5 A Day. This is the same for yams, cassava and plantain, too. They're classified nutritionally as a starchy food, because when they're eaten as part of a meal they're usually used in place of other sources of starch, such as bread, rice or pasta.

Eat a good variety of plant-based foods such as:

Pulses such as lentils, peas and beans all count towards your 5 A DAY. Grains and cereals such as rice, oats, pasta, bread, couscous and unsweetened breakfast cereals. Opt for wholegrain varieties and limit highly processed foods, such as cakes and pastries.

Consider mushrooms, sweetcorn and broccoli, and don't forget to add some tinned kidney beans, as these also count towards your 5-a-day. You can even reduce the amount of meat you would usually use and add extra beans instead, as they are a great source of protein and are cheaper than meat.

One portion is 80g or any of the following: one banana, orange, pear or apple or a similar sized fruit. half a grapefruit or avocado. a slice of large fruit such as melon or pineapple.

Baked beans

Any beans or lentils will count towards your 5-a-day, and that includes baked beans. Make sure you choose low-sugar and low-salt versions or you could try making your own.

So two bananas would count so long as you also had, say, an apple and some carrots, but five bananas wouldn't count. The whole thing is rather confusing with so many myths and hearsay. I think we just need to eat lots of fruit and veg!

Vegetables in ready-made salad still count as a portion if there's 80g of vegetables. But some ready-made salads contain little in the way of vegetables, and a lot of mayo, dressings or other ingredients (like bacon) that are high in fat and salt.

This popular ingredient is a nutritional powerhouse. It only takes two plum tomatoes to make up one of your five-a-day. What's more, tomatoes release more nutrients as they cook because the cell walls break down, which is good news as we often use canned tomatoes for sauces.

Potatoes, yam, plantain and cassava do not count, although sweet potatoes and squash do. The reason for this is that regular white potatoes and yam are often included as the starchy component of a meal, replacing pasta, rice, bread and noodles.

Do olives count as 5-a-day? ›

Olives. A good source of the antioxidant vitamin E, olives do count towards one of your five-a-day - but you'd have to eat a fair amount of them in order to for them to count. 'They're also high in salt, so snacking on a few is fine but just don't go overboard with them,' advises Shubrook.

"Chickpeas, the key ingredient in hummus and falafel, can count towards your 5-a-day," Huntriss says. "But similar to baked beans, they are considered a pulse.

An adult portion is 80g (about 3oz) of fresh, frozen or tinned fruit or vegetables. For dried fruit or veg it's 30g - or 150ml if you're having juice. A good guide is that a portion is about a handful. Two plums, satsumas or kiwi fruit; eight strawberries; 12 grapes; 14 cherries.

Coleslaw: All that cabbage and carrot means 3.5 heaped tablespoons is equal to one of your daily five. But it also comes with 230 calories (130 in the reduced-fat version) on average, thanks to the mayonnaise.

🍎 How much? 1 x five-a-day serving = ½ medium onion.

But the researchers warned that popcorn should be seen as a supplement to your five-a-day, not an alternative, as it doesn't contain the vital vitamins and nutrients found in fruit and vegetables.

No, nuts are not classed as fruits or vegetables and therefore do not count towards your 5-a-day. Nuts and seeds are considered healthy sources of fat and are beneficial in their own right, containing many of the minerals we need to stay healthy as well as heart-healthy unsaturated fat and fibre.