Is the "five a day" essential to a good diet?

Andybtsn

Andybtsn

Andybtsn

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I was going to try shed a few pounds by trying TheCyberMonkey's diet of the following:

Breakfast = Porridge (Sometimes have some scrambled egg aswell)
Snack = 2 Snacka Jack's.
Lunch Part 1 = Half a pitta Bread with half a can of tune
Lunch part 2= Other half of pitta bread and other half of can of tuna
Dinner= Chicken or Fish with lots of Veg

(Copied and pasted from this thread)

A long with regular football (all week) I was hoping this should be a kick start to a healthy diet or most importantly losing some weight, however there is no fruit in there at all, is this a problem? Should I try add some in the diet? I love fruit so it's not a problem.
 
Andybtsn said:
I was going to try shed a few pounds by trying TheCyberMonkey's diet of the following:

Breakfast = Porridge (Sometimes have some scrambled egg aswell)
Snack = 2 Snacka Jack's.
Lunch Part 1 = Half a pitta Bread with half a can of tune
Lunch part 2= Other half of pitta bread and other half of can of tuna
Dinner= Chicken or Fish with lots of Veg

(Copied and pasted from this thread)

A long with regular football (all week) I was hoping this should be a kick start to a healthy diet or most importantly losing some weight, however there is no fruit in there at all, is this a problem? Should I try add some in the diet? I love fruit so it's not a problem.
Click to expand...


I think when people say a balanced diet, it means your getting a balance of vitamins and nutrients. So if your not eating a lot of fruit then as long as your getting what you need from the veg then that's good. In terms of playing football I try and make sure that I get plenty of Vit. C through Satsumas, Kiwi fruit. I'm playing 3 or 4 times a week and I feel better for making sure I balance the diet up

Speaking of football, wasn't able to get on over the weekend till last night, we really need to sort these two games out ;)
 
PikeyPriest said:
IIRC there isn't much evidence to say that 5-a-day is necessary and some argue that 10/12 is what is really needed. So it's difficult to say!
Click to expand...

From what I've read, everyone should be aiming for 5 a day at an absolute minimum. I think I currently get about 9 or 10 a day, going by standard portion sizes.
 
For weightloss there are certain nutrients that are beneficial, but no its far from essential. For being fitter, healthier and feeling great it's imperitive :)

5-a-day really should be a minimum though, and is ridiculous easy to achieve even if you're a lazy sob :p


Brekky :: two small slices wholemeal toast, two poached eggs. 250ml Innocent smoothie (2 portions) OR grapfruit juice (one portion).
Snack 1 :: 1 1/2 big handfulls of blueberrys, a quarter of a bell pepper, and 3 oatcakes with cottage cheese. Small handful mixed nuts.
Lunch :: wholemeal pita, with chicken, bell pepper, rocket, watercress and spinach. Small handful mixed nuts.
Snack 2 :: the same as Snack 1.
Snack three (pre-training) :: Same as lunch.

That's around seven portions of fruit and veg, without dinner (3-4 portions) or snack 4 (1-2 portions). With little prep.

Ant :cool:
 
PikeyPriest said:
IIRC there isn't much evidence to say that 5-a-day is necessary and some argue that 10/12 is what is really needed. So it's difficult to say!
Click to expand...

What is evidenced is the massive role that the range of nutrients provided by fruits and veg play in the healthy human body, and the negative effects a lack of these nutrients can have :)

Ant :cool:
 
Hello mate,

For the first couple of weeks I was having a smoothy with my breakfast.
Then I started reading about the sugar in them....all be it natural sugars, but it put me off anyway.

Did take some mulitvits here and there when I remembered, which wasn't very often.

anyway...
The Vegtables in the evening meal...when its says lots...I mean LOTS as in some mixed frozen veg and a big heap of brocolli.

Make sure you drink plenty of water and I drank a lot of green tea as well after reading a lot about it being good for fat loss. The misses loves the stuff so we always had plenty in anyway.

As I think I said in my original thread, I felt that the diet may have been a little too low on calories for what I was doing i.e. weights 4 days a week, a bit of running and also walking home every day...but at the same time I never really felt that I was starving myself or anything.

Admittedly I lost the wieght, but I do think i could have been a little less restrictive and should have added more vegtables etc.
At the moment im now doing the opposite and sorting my bulking diet and finding that i can actually eat a more than i thought i could, and still lose wight.
You live and learn.

-G

*EDIT* just had a look on the back of a packet of veg. Theres 40 cal per 80g which in the grand scheme of things, is not a lot at all.
Id add a good serving to the tuna with a light mayo to bind it or just cook it and then cool it and put it in a container and take it to work or whatever.
 
Last edited:
TheCybermonkey said:
*snip* success story! *snip*

For the first couple of weeks I was having a smoothy with my breakfast.
Then I started reading about the sugar in them....all be it natural sugars, but it put me off anyway.
Click to expand...

Great to see you made good progress and learnt a thing or two :D

In the morning the body is in a stage of glycogen depletion. It has been starved of energy for a prolonged period. A small glass, as long as you control the glycaemic load you place on your body throughout the day, won't be problematic at all. The health benefits far outweight the small possibility of a morning glass o' juice being prohibitive to weightloss :)

Ant :cool:
 
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