Processed vegetables and why you should have more than 5-a-day

The last National Diet and Nutrition Survey shows that only eight per cent of children between 11 to 18 years-old meets the 5-a-day recommendation for fruit and vegetable consumption.

Source: Creative Commons

Guilty Pleasures reporter, Laura Mendes, went to speak with Jo Travers, author of The Low Fat Diet about how much fruit and vegetables people should eat and also about processed food.

Processed food is not always bad, there are situations where processed vegetables can be healthier than natural ones. Dietician Travers has the answer:

The Food Standards Agency is an independent government department that makes sure the food people eat is safe and they try to improve the access to an affordable healthy diet. “There are different types of processed food, it can be something really healthy and it cannot be, it depends on what type of food people are talking about,” said a Food Standards Agency spokeswoman. “Most of the natural fruits and vegetables are healthier than the processed ones,” she added.

The recommendation of having 5-a-day of fruits and vegetables

Nutritionist Travers explained that five a day is achievable but most of the people in the UK take in average only 3-a-day. “It is sort of at least 5-a-day, there is a bit of a grey area, nobody really knows whether 5-a-day is enough,” she said. The main benefit of fruits and vegetables is vitamins, however, there are new studies that shows it has much more benefits and says that people should take 7 to 11 portions of fruit and vegetable during a day. “If we would change the advice to have more portions, I do not know whether people would take note of that or not,” said Travers.

In fact, people take fruit and vegetables during the day without even noticing. However, they do not have the same value on vitamins and other nutrients. “It is very easy to drink eight fruits in a smoothie, but it is quite difficult to eat eight pieces of fruit,” said the nutritionist. She explained that the other problem with taking such a high quantity of fruit in one go is that it is a high sugar intake in a short period of time.

Another interesting aspect that Travers talks about is how healthy are microwaves? Watch the video below: