Here’s What One Portion of Your Five-A-Day Actually Looks Like
These nifty colour charts show how different fruit and veg compare.
24 April 2019
All Credits: PA
You may think that you’re a pro at ensuring you eat your 5 a day, but it turns out what counts as a portion varies widely depending on the colour of the fruit or veg you’re chomping on.
BBC Good Food magazine has released six nifty infographics – yellow, purple, red, white, orange and green – to show just how much you need to eat of different foods to reach your goal.
SEE ALSO: 7 Things To Eat And Drink To Help Beat Disease – According To A Harvard-Trained Doctor
The healthy eating target, set by the World Health Organisation, is key for making sure you’ve got a balanced diet. So check you’ve been eating enough of your favourite healthy foods with these colour-coded charts…
Green
Good news for avocado fans – just half of one counts as a portion, whereas you need a whole apple or a pear for it to be one of your 5 a day. And if you’re partial to a kiwi as an afternoon snack, you should have two to notch up a portion.
Meanwhile, when it comes to green veggies, you need three whole sticks of celery to reach one portion, whereas a single 5cm slice of cucumber will do the trick.
Purple
One of the surprises on the purple chart is the amount of passion fruit that counts as one of your 5 a day – you need to consume an impressive six to make up a portion. That’s a lot of seeds to be spooning out…
Go for an easier 10 blackberries to meet one of your 5-a-day goals, or only 1/2 an aubergine is enough.
Red
Tomato puree has to be one of the most versatile ingredients and you only need one tablespoon of the stuff to make up a portion. Compared to seven cherry tomatoes, that’s quite significant…
Chopping up just half a pepper also counts as one of your 5 a day. And, yes, that’s even if you’re using it to scoop up hummus.
White
Next time you’re chopping up an onion, it’s worth bearing in mind you need to use a whole one for it to count as a portion. That’s a lot of trying not to cry…While they tend to be a bit less tear-inducing, you also need 8 spring onions to be eating one of your 5 a day.
When it comes to mushrooms, it varies quite a lot – you can either go for 14 button mushrooms or 2 tablespoons of dried mushrooms.
Orange
Satsumas, tangerines, and clementines must come as a pair for you to be on track with a serving of fruit, whereas just one glass of fruit juice will do it.
You need to have a whole sweet potato but three tablespoons of baked beans on your toast will swiftly get you to a portion.
Yellow
One slice of pineapple is all you need but you’ll require a whole banana.
When it comes to sweetcorn, yellow lentils and chickpeas – it’s three tablespoons of each for one serving of veg.
So overall, every colour (except white) offers some fast 5-a-day fixes.
But the speediest option of all, we reckon, is purple’s 10 blackberries. Or maybe we just eat berries far too quickly….
- Tags:
- vegetables
- fruits
- Food
- healthy eating
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