What really constitutes your Five-A-Day?
The Government
have for some time been encouraging us to eat more fruit and vegetables via
their ‘Five A Day’ campaign. Quite rightly their
thinking is that if we eat more fruit and vegetables not only will we be
increasing our fibre and vitamins but are less likely to fill up on junk
food.
The problem is how we interpret the Five A Day. For example, many people
will count chips, baked beans, canned fruit (in syrup!) dried fruit and fruit
juice as part of their quota, and in extreme cases, parents are adding raisins
to Coca pops or making banana pancakes, in the belief that at least their
children are getting their ‘five a day’.
Let’s examine this more closely .................I’m not saying
that potatoes, baked beans, canned and dried fruit and juice are worse than
crisps, cakes and biscuits, I just want you to think about better ways of
getting your five a day.
• Potatoes are a starchy food, with some vitamin C – destroyed by
frying, plenty of fibre if you eat the skins, but not a great deal of nutrients,
the same goes for parsnips which are high on the Glycemic Index. You would do
better to have sweet potatoes (high in vitamin A) or at least bake them in their
skins and serve with pesto rather than heaps of butter.
• Baked beans (made with haricot beans) are often in a high sugar, high
salt sauce which negates the health benefit of the pulse. Pulses such as chick
peas, butter beans and haricot beans are very healthy when added to soups and
stews or pureed as a humous or made into bean pate.
• Why have canned fruit laden with sugary syrup when there is a variety
of natural fresh fruit. You can always bake apples or poach pears, or make a
berry compote yourself. Even canned fruit in natural juice is no substitute for
the vitamins and fibre found in its fresh counterpart.
• Dried fruit can be healthy, especially unsulphured apricots and figs,
if used sparingly but raisins and dates are very high in natural sugar. Blueberries
and strawberries would be a better choice. Less sugary fresh fruit is better
e.g. apples, kiwi, pears, oranges, and higher in vitamin C.
In our quest to obtain our five a day, we may be forgetting other healthy
foods such as oily fish, nuts and seeds, herbs such as parsley and basil,
brown rice, porridge, pulses in the form of humus, olive oil, natural live
yoghurt and omega 3 rich eggs.
Adding token pineapple to pizza, or a limp lettuce to a burger bun does not
make it healthy. We need a variety of healthy foods as mentioned above, as
well as our vital greens ......our reds, oranges and purples for that matter!
By Samantha Silvester Ch.Ed MBANT
www.whatseatingyou.co.uk at The Wantage Natural Therapy Centre