Why is the recommendation five vegetables a day?
We have all been told that the recommendations for our daily intake of vegetables is five serves and two fruit.
But generally we don’t have a good explanation of why.
I will go through why we need to meet these recommendations daily based on improving and maintain good health.
We need these five serves of vegetables a day to do two things which improve our health.
Firstly they provide us with lots and lots of nutrients.
These nutrients are then used to improve cognitive functioning, improve blood sugar levels, help our cells repair and reproduce and much more.
Secondly they provide fibre for our gut, this not only helps to keep our bowel movements regular. It also helps to feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut.
When your gut has more beneficial bacteria then unbeneficial, symptoms like IBS, burping, flatulence, bloating and other digestive symptom will subside.
Fun fact:
When your gut is full of beneficial bacteria you likeness of getting sick is reduced.
This is because the lining of your stomach will be strong, stopping the pathogens from entering into your system.
Now we have talked about when it is important to consume five serves of vegetables a day, let’s talk about what a serve looks like. It’s simple.
One serve of vegetables = One cup of raw vegetables or 0.5 cups of cooked vegetable.
The not so simple part is fitting these five serves in every day.
Here are some quick tips on how to fit more vegetables in each day.
Tip one:
Cut up some veggie stick and take them to work to snack on.
My favourites are: carrots, cucumber and red capsicum.
Tip two:
Sneak grated vegetables into cooked meals.
One perfect example is spaghetti bolognese, this is super easy to grate a carrot and zucchini in without changing the taste.
Tip three:
Throw in extra, whether it be a barbecue or roasting, throw on some extra veggies.
Leftovers are great for the next day.
Tip four:
Portion your plate.
Ideally your plate should be: ½ vegetables or salad; ¼ protein; ¼ carbs
Please consult a clinical nutritionist or dietitian for personalised advice, as this is general advice for the health population.
Add in healthy eating guide for Adults
With servings of different foods in the list.
Written by clinical nutritionist, Kristina Stafford
