Today I am going to introduce you to my new challenge. I know you all kept up with The Water Challenge that I've been doing over the past month. (If not, click here). I am feeling so much better for the amount of water that I've been drinking. Seriously, try it.
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For the next month, my challenge will be to get all of my five portions of fruit and veg per day. Now I am not some junk food nut that never touches a vegetable. I do enjoy fruit and vegetables on a daily basis. However I am quite haphazard with the amount of fruit and veg that I eat. Some days it will just be a banana with breakfast. Some days it will be a full on veg fest with every meal. I aim to make my fruit and veg intake more consistent and a part of my everyday routine.
So what are the benefits to eating enough fruit and veg every day?
- They contain essential nutrients and minerals that you can't get from grains or meat. Things like vitamin C and potassium for example.
- They keep your digestive system in good working order. If you don't get enough fruit and veg in your diet, you can suffer from constipation and are at higher risk of bowel cancer.
- They reduce your risk of heart disease and cancers.
- Common infections such as the common cold are far less likely if you get your five portions of fruit and veg a day. Particularly things like raspberries and blueberries. (I really REALLY hate colds, so this is like the biggest plus side for me!)
- It is thought that there is a link between eating fresh berries every day and growing new brain cells which can reduce the risk of brain disease such as Alzheimer's.
- Eating fewer than a portion and a half of vegetables a day increases your risk of cataracts which is a major cause of blindness.
Plus, there are individual properties to certain fruit and veg that are so important to us! For example did you know that tomatoes are an essential source of lycopene which aids in strengthening bones? Forget milk, tomatoes are where it's at!
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Did you know that onions are a fantastic source of polyphenols? Polyphenols are micro nutrients which aid in the lowering of the risk of certain cancers and heart disease.
Did you know that steamed kale is proven to aid in the reduction of cholesterol?
So really, it's very important and there are so many ways in which you can incorporate fruit and veg into your diet. Juice, smoothies, frozen veg, canned veg, smoothies all count towards your five a day. Your five a day should be a variety of different things because different items will contain different nutrients. For example, eating five bananas will not count as your five a day.
But I could put a cup of blueberries on my cereal which counts, or I could add a tomato into a sandwich which would count.
So what does count as a portion? Approximately 80g of a fruit or veg. For example:
- A slice of melon
- 7 strawberries
- 1 apple
- seven cherry tomatoes
- three tablespoons of kidney beans
- three heaped spoon fulls of cooked vegetables such as carrots or peas.
- 1 glass of juice
For more information on your five-a-day, click here.
Over the next month I will be updating you with food diaries, ups and downs and basically everything to do with my journey of eating my five a day. In theory this should be easy...but it's still going to be a habit that I'll have to push myself into . I made myself drink two litres of water a day, I can do this.
So do you remember the smoothie recipe I posted last week? That counts as two of my five a day right there! This is going to be a sinch...
Has anyone else undertaken a challenge like this?
Let me know in the comments!
The Five-a-Day challenge is one of many challenges I'm undertaking to promote a healthy and active lifestyle.
I didn't eat a single vegetable yesterday! Oops. Usually I'm pretty good (although I do tend to cram in all my portions at tea time), but yesterday we had spaghetti carbonara for tea, so no veg. Oops!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the challenge. I'm sure you'll ace it :-)
I have also had days where I haven't eaten a single vegetable! But that's about to change...
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