Cooking from scratch everything my family eats has always made me feel a tad smug. And chucking into those meals five fruit and vegetables a day isn’t that difficult.
I will, however, qualify this to say I am not one of those people who run around clasping a green juice and swearing by its antioxidant properties. Smoothies of all kinds have passed me by, but perhaps this is because I have five children. Whizzing up kale and cucumber concoctions for all seven of us is too noisy and messy.
Instead, I am a proficient home cook. Knocking up a roast chicken with five types of roasted vegetables, then using the stock to make veg-packed minestrone, is something I can, quite literally, do with my eyes closed. This means five-a-day comes naturally. But a new book wants to set the bar even higher.
According to plant scientist and broadcaster James Wong, five is for wimps and we should all be eating ten-a-day to live longer — and dramatically healthier — lives.
Ten? There are, after all, only so many apples I can eat in a day, and I’m daunted by the quantity of chopping I might be forced to do.
However, when I call James for a quick chat about how to square up to the challenge of doubling our fruit and vegetable consumption — visualising having to bribe the kids to chomp piles of raw spinach — he’s incredibly reassuring.
‘Relax! It’s not that hard,’ he tells me, reminding me our sense of portion size has got out of control, and that people overestimate what constitutes a single serving.
Half an apple, at 80g, is one serving, as is a few florets of broccoli or a spoonful of tomato puree.
And he reminds me I can use canned or frozen products, so this is not a diet dependent on munching mountains of crudites. ‘It tots up quickly, I promise,’ he reassures me.
Monday
I’ve been trying to kick my lazy morning habit of devouring toast and shop-bought jam, so I start with half an apple and half a pear chopped over muesli, with extra raisins.
Add a glass of orange juice and that’s four portions without trying. Beans and pulses can make up one portion, so at lunch I hunt around the fridge for hummus, which I eat in a wrap with grated carrot, lettuce and pepper.
James is adamant that, in a shop-bought sandwich, a sliver of lettuce and single cucumber slice doesn’t count as a whole portion but, as I’m making this at home, I’m generous with the veg.
So lunch is another four. I’m only halfway through the day and already have eight portions!
We have pancakes for supper, but since lemon juice can’t, sadly, count as a portion, I whip up garlic mushrooms, trying not to feel I’m missing out as the kids devour a pile with Nutella. To console myself, I slice banana into a pancake and hit ten portions.
TOTAL: 10
Tuesday
I don’t have time to do James’s triple berry hotcakes, so revert to fruit and raisin muesli, adding some pieces of orange.
Lunch in an uninspiring cafe is a baked potato, which doesn’t count. I ask for a salad on the side and get a few slices of onion, limp lettuce and a slice of tomato.
It’s so pathetic I can count it as only one portion, but I add a fruit salad with grapes, canned pineapple and orange segments, reminding myself of James’s advice that canned and frozen is fine.
By mid-afternoon I’m starving and have peanut butter spread on dates and an apple.
I make cottage pie for supper, doubling the quantities of veg, with peas, lentils, and carrots, plus white beans and onions in the mash.
With the onions and canned tomatoes, that’s a whopping seven just for supper.
TOTAL: 14
Wednesday
I’m on the go in London all day and don’t have time for a proper breakfast, grabbing a banana and apple instead. At the station, I eye some raspberry muffins but, since there are only two or three fruit per cake, I can’t make it count.
I skip lunch as I’m in meetings, and also skip the spare apple as I can’t face it, instead buying a pot of carrot and hummus from M&S.
That evening, I’m invited to a Spanish restaurant — the plates of chorizo and patatas bravas mean I’m woefully low on fresh veg.
I beg the waitress for some greens. She brings lettuce, which I add to a few pieces of tomato and some padron peppers.
TOTAL: 7
Thursday
I’m sick of chopped apple for breakfast and I’m craving bacon, so, after dropping off the kids at school, I cook it with tomatoes, mushrooms, an avocado and add a handful of spinach. Normally I’d just have it on toast.
Working at home, I make myself tomato and red pepper soup with an onion and celery base, feeling virtuous that I’m at eight portions already.
I’m out for supper again, but we go for Lebanese, where a single salad is made up of four different types of veg, taking my total to 12 today.
Half a bottle of red wine that evening does not, however, count.
TOTAL: 12
Friday
A rare day off so I experiment with James’s recipes and knock up a ‘full Mexican’ breakfast, with six portions of vegetables.
I make sausages and rice for lunch, but adopt James’s tip of adding peas and tomatoes. So, with breakfast, that’s eight portions.
At supper, I make James’s favourite sweet potato and parsnip fries with salsa, beans and spring onions. James is a big fan of puddings, so I pig out on apple and blackberry crumble with mango custard.
That’s 16 portions in a single day. I’m delighted — and full.
TOTAL: 16
Before I started the test, I gave myself a quick health assessment — weight 10 st 8 lb; waist 33 in; cholesterol 5 mmol/L.
By the end of the week, my cholesterol remained unchanged, but I’d lost 1½ in from my waist and 1 lb in weight.
Not earth-shattering, but I had only done five days. However, I am surprised by the change to the way I put food together.
Without thinking about it, I’m hitting ten portions or more and have dramatically cut down on bread and pasta.
I’m not cooking pure vegetarian food, but a shift in thinking means that veg, more than fruit, forms the basis of my cooking.
It did feel harder to do this on the go than when cooking at home, but this doesn’t have to be an expensive exercise. I’m now adding more veg — fresh and frozen — to everything I cook, including simple dishes like rice or mash, which not only feels more nutritious, but is also cheaper than cooking a lot of meat.
Best of all, there’s not a kale smoothie in sight.
. . the tips and tricks you need to make it work for YOU!
by James Wong
This morning, I took a dose of something that could slash my risk of heart disease by nearly 25 per cent. It could reduce my risk of a stroke in later life by a third, and confer protection against a range of common cancers, too.
The latest research even suggests this ‘treatment’ is capable of cutting my risk of premature death from any cause by a whopping 30 per cent. Want to know the secret?
No, it wasn’t some kind of miracle pill. It was simply my breakfast. And it wasn’t an awful ‘superfood’ green smoothie, either — just cereal and toast, like millions of other people ate this morning.
All I did differently was to chuck a handful of berries on the cereal, slice a banana on to my toast and pour myself a glass of juice. That’s it. Plain and simple.
These little tweaks boosted my intake of fruit and veg by three to four portions in a single sitting. Repeated at each meal, this would add up to about ten portions a day — double the minimum recommended daily intake of the good stuff.
Why is this relevant? Well, according to a growing body of international studies, getting beyond five-a-day and closer to ten confers significantly more protection against the diseases that most affect the Western world.
Yes, ten-a-day — not five. The fact is, those now-famous five-a-day guidelines always tended towards the minimum end of what science suggests we need.
Even at the time of their publication in 1990, we knew that five-a-day was not based on levels optimal for good health, but the least amount required to enjoy a significant health benefit.
Your guide to what one portion looks like
SOURCE: Daily Mail, by Clover Stroud
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