Have you heard about the “5 a day”?

I’m not a professional nutritionist, but I like to learn and to be updated about nutrition and wellbeing.

I’ve been reading about healthy behaviours and tips to keep a balanced diet and prevent illnesses. I summarized part of the information and I would like to share it with you.

We should have at least 5 portions of fruits or veggies per day to be healthy and have a balanced diet. It sounds a lot and not easy to achieve, but there are many options to make it happen.

A portion is 80 grs of fruit or vegetable. And you can measure it more or less with the palm of your hand.

 

 

How can you reach your goal:

You can eat fresh fruits and vegetables, these are my favourites because they keep their properties and natural flavours.

You can also have them canned and frozen. If you choose canned fruits try to have them in natural juice rather than syrup. Same for vegetables and beans. If you take them canned, try to choose the ones soaked in water, with less salt and sugar additives.

Other option to complement your recommended ”5 a day” intake, are the dried fruits: nuts, raisins, currants, prunes, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios… A portion is around 30 grs. of these fruits.

 

 

You can also have a glass of natural fresh juice or a smoothie. Try to limit your juice and smoothie intake to a combined total of 150 ml a day. The rest is better to eat it from the whole fruit itself.

Are you already getting the “5 a day”? What are your fruit and veggie favourite choices?

 

More information: https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/five-a-day