Eating 5 or more portions of fruit and veg a day can reduce your risk of cancer by as much as 20%, but most of us still don’t eat enough fruit and veg - particularly if we’re on a low-income. There are ways of increasing your intake of fruit and veg cheaply and easily…and it doesn’t have to be boiled cabbage and carrots!
One portion of fruit or vegetables is 80g, or roughly a heaped handful. This also works out as: one piece of a medium sized fruit (apple, banana), 1 slice of large fruit (melon), a handful of dried fruit, a glass of fruit juice, a bowl of mixed salad, a serving of vegetables with a main meal, or the vegetables in a portion of vegetable curry, casserole or stir-fry.
It’s not just fresh fruit and vegetables that help towards your 5 portions a day – you can include frozen, tinned and dried fruit and veg. In addition you can also count 1 glass of fruit juice, 1 portion of pulses (like baked beans, chick-peas, lentils etc) per day.
There are a few things that you can’t count towards your five-a-day, these include potatoes and other starchy vegetables, and foods made from processed fruit and vegetables, such as orange squash, jam, tomato ketchup.
All of the below count as 1 portion -
See the Department of Health's "five a day" information.
Allotments are a great source of cheap, fresh fruit and veg. Working on an allotment can be hard work, but it can also be really rewarding (and ½ an hour a day gardening is a great way to exercise…). Allotments are a really good way to meet people, get exercise, learn new skills and relax outdoors.
On a community allotment, groups of people get together to grow fruit and veg on a shared plot. This means that everyone involved shares the workload as well as the produce. As part of the Five a Day programme, 2 large plots have been set aside for use as community allotments – One is at Paul’s Field Allotment (off Mount Road in Ore Valley), the other is at Choice Allotments, off Blackman Avenue in Hollington. Tools and seeds are all provided and the Five-a-day programme will also help with preparing the plots as well as offering practical advice and assistance.
Other allotments have vacancies for people who wish to grow their own fruit, veg and flowers. The cost of an average plot is only £12 a year and can even be halved for the first year if the applicant holds a ‘Passport to Leisure’.
Five-a-day has set up a voucher scheme to enable families on low-incomes to get money off fruit and vegetables when they shop at their local greengrocers or local food co-op. the money off vouchers consist of 5 coupons worth £2 each which can be used to get a discount off the price at 4 greengrocers: K&A Fruits, Fruitique, Silverhill Fruit and Vegetables and Carrolls Greengrocers, as well as Veg4U.
Farmers markets sell local produce, which is often cheaper and fresher than other outlets. Five a day has set up a monthly market in Hastings town centre. The market takes place on the 2nd Thursday in each month from 9.30-2pm in Wellington Place, starting in April 2004.
This is a new community food project that aims to provide local people and community groups with affordable fruit and veg, particularly in areas where there are few other shops. You can buy fruit and veg from Veg4U at:
Brittania Enterprise Centre, Waterworks Road (just by Safeways) from 10am-12.30, Monday-Friday. Veg4U also delivers to community centres, nurseries, schools and other sites over Hastings.
For more info call 718060 or e-mail veg4u@hswl.fsnet.co.uk
Five a Day has helped set up several new community cafes so you can get an affordable meal at least one day a week in many venues around Hastings and St Leonards, including Robsack Community Centre, St Clements Church Hall, Priory Road and The Health Hut.
Avoid wastage by buying fresh fruit and veg at varying degrees of ripeness, so that some ripen earlier and some ripen later.
Add extra veg to your takeaway or ready meal – add mushrooms, pineapple or peppers to your pizza, or have a side-salad with pasta.
Add extra fruit to puddings, such as adding a tin of fruit to jelly or bananas with custard
Try making a smoothie by blending together your favourite fruits with fruit juice or yoghurt.
Keep a note of how many portions of fruit and veg you eat each day – if you count them it might help you increase the amount you eat.
Five-a-Day - Maresa Bossano at Hastings and St Leonards PCT on 457109 or maresa.bossano@hs-pct.nhs.uk
Pulse Café worker – Hollington Youth Café
Seriously good food wickedly low prices
The Hollington Youth café - your emergency grub response unit. Call 07973 255076 if u need emergency food 4 your club or sports activity
Horizons run well-being courses – Contact Sonia on 204136 for further details.
www.doh.gov.uk/fiveaday - for more info and free resources on the five-a-day project.