Instead of munching on the Government’s recommended minimum of five portions of fruit and vegetables a day we should be eating 10 or more – that’s the finding of a research team from Imperial College London. But just how easy is this to achieve? Reporter Hilarie Stelfox kept a food diary for a week to see if she could make the grade

AS an allotment-owning family we’ve always been keen on vegetables, so I was delighted with the news that eating 10 portions of ‘greens’ and fruit a day dramatically reduces the chance of disease.

Even in the winter months we have access to goodies such as kale, chard, leeks, greenhouse-grown salad leaves and frozen summer berries, so I thought my diet must easily surpass this target on most days.

But smugness comes before a fall. The results of a food diary, kept over one week, revealed that it’s surprisingly difficult to get 10-a-day.

While my breakfast (always the same) makes a good contribution to the 10-a-day, comprising at least three portions, I’m generally falling short the rest of the day. My best evening meal for cramming in lots of veggies is a stir fry, and I’ve come to realise that I need a fruit bowl on my desk instead of a biscuit tin.

Here’s what I found

My Food Diary

Monday: Breakfast – milk and oat smoothie with frozen berries, banana and kale; Lunch – houmous sandwich with cherry tomatoes; Dinner – stir fry with portions of sweet pepper, onion, spinach, mushrooms, baby sweetcorn, broccoli. Total portions 10. Nailed it!

Tuesday: Breakfast – smoothie, as above; Lunch – cream cheese sandwich: Dinner – pasta with tomatoes, peppers and onions; snacks – apple. Total portions 7.

Wednesday: Breakfast - smoothie: Lunch – leftover pasta with tomato sauce: Dinner out at tapas bar – meat and fish dishes with small portions of aubergine, tomatoes and fries (but potatoes don’t count). Total portions 6.

Brook Street open market, Huddersfield. New 10-a-day fruit and veg advice.

Thursday: Breakfast - smoothie: Lunch – butternut squash soup, bread; Dinner – vegan burgers with mushrooms, onions, lettuce and tomato. Snack – grapes. Total portions 9.

Friday: Breakfast - smoothie: Lunch - houmous sandwich; Dinner – Jamie Oliver 30-minute meal of sea bass, sweet potatoes, broccoli and asparagus. Total portions 6.

Saturday: Breakfast - smoothie; Lunch – toast with houmous, olives and avocado; Dinner – Indian takeaway of curry with mixed vegetables (3 portions?) and onion bhajis. Total portions 8, possibly.

Sunday: Breakfast - smoothie: Lunch - leek and potato soup: Dinner – sausages, Yorkshire puds, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, chard. Snacks - several clementines. Total portions 8.

The good news is that I’m certainly getting five -a-day, which is more than the UK average – currently only one third of the population consume this amount. But I’m only hitting the 10-a-day target, which Imperial College researchers say protects from disease, once a week. The scientists made their findings after analysing data from 95 studies of fruit and vegetable intakes.

But is it realistic to expect us all to consume at least 10-a-day? I asked Dr Deborah Pufal, course leader for the undergraduate nutrition degree programme at Huddersfield University, for her thoughts on the matter.

“The average fruit and vegetable consumption in the UK is about 3.9 portions a day,” says Deborah, “and people say they can’t manage five, so 10 a day is quite optimistic - even though there is evidence of health benefits. It’s hard to achieve.”

She believes that while there’s widespread awareness of the Government’s ’5-A-Day’ campaign, which began in 2003, it has made little difference to eating habits. Statistics from the Health Survey for England show fruit and vegetable consumption peaked in 2006 (with around 32% of men and 28% of men achieving 5-A-Day) but has fallen slightly since then. Most worrying of all less than 20% of children achieve 5-A-Day.

Deborah feels the campaign failed because the portion sizes are difficult to grasp; fresh fruit and vegetables are deemed to be too expensive; modern lifestyles don’t lend themselves to cooking from scratch and many people don’t know how to base a meal around vegetables.

“The British diet tends to rely on protein,” explained Deborah, “and we eat too much protein. We tend to say ‘I’ve got these chicken breasts, what shall I do with them?’ We don’t think ‘I’ve got this basket of vegetables, what will I do with them?’

“In other cultures fruit and vegetables are a more significant component of the diet – in Italy, for example, they eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.”

The Imperial College research shows that eating 800 grams of fruit and vegetables a day can reduce the risk of a stroke by a third; and cancer risk can be reduced by consuming green vegetables, such as spinach, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower, as well as peppers and carrots. A portion of fruit or vegetables is considered to be a single item, such as an apple or pear, or a handful of berries or chopped vegetables/fruit.

Dr Deborah Pufal, Food and Nutrition course leader at University of Huddersfield

Deborah believes that appealing to the nation’s vanity might be a better approach. As she points out most fresh fruits and vegetables contain relatively few calories – the reason why slimming clubs promote them so heavily in their eating plans - and are therefore not as fattening as other foods.

She also believes that children should be introduced to food preparation from an early age, with schools doing more to promote healthy eating.

And we need to stop using the excuse that fresh fruit and vegetables are too costly to enjoy every day. As Deborah points out, Huddersfield has both an indoor and outdoor market selling cut-price produce, and budget supermarket chains often have deals on fruit and vegetables. “You can go to the market and pick up seasonal vegetables very cheaply,” she says. “When my children were babies, I used to go to the market and get a huge quantity of vegetables for very little; then cook them, puree them and freeze them in small portions.

“What we need is a change of attitude.”