What actually is five serves?
Posted by kathryn in Vegetables and Nutrition
One of the main subjects I find myself returning to on Limes & Lycopene, is the importance of vegies and how to get those five daily recommended servings. Simply put, vegetables are a crucial part of a healthy diet.
This applies to everybody, it’s not just sick people, or old people who need to keep up the vegies. It’s not just those with a family history of cancer, cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Instead, it’s you, me, our families, friends – all of us need to be having plenty of vegies every day to be healthy.
In clinic, clients will often tell me their diet is “pretty healthy”. While it’s true they don’t eat a lot of junk, or processed foods, they keep saturated fats to a minimum and cook with olive oil, their vegetable intake is often low to non-existent. And it’s not just my clients, with the recent report by the Chief Health Officer of NSW showing that, in this state at least, only 5% of men and 10% of women are having their daily five serves – it seems there’s still a long way to go with this message.
Moreoever, since the release of new nutrient reference values for Australians in 2006 (RDIs and suggested dietary targets), it’s looking more and more like the recommended daily level is going to increase from five, possibly to seven per day.
What is a serving of vegetables?
While five servings of vegetables sounds like a lot, it’s actually not. A serving is equal to:
- 1 cup (ie 250ml) of salad vegetables and leafy vegetables (eg lettuce, herbs, rocket, tomato, cucumber, mushroom, spinach)
- 1/2 cup of other vegetables, including tinned and frozen vegetables and legumes
- 1 small potato
That might translate into a small salad at lunch, or “all the salads” in your sandwich and then a couple of cups of vegies in the evening.
A pictorial guide to the 5 serves
However, I realise this is often difficult to judge. What exactly does a cup of spinach or half a cup of carrots look like when you’re at the supermarket buying food for dinner?
Below are seven photographs, each showing different examples of the five servings of vegies and how you can put them together during the day. You’ll see the cup and half cup measures at the back of most of the photos, to give you an idea of proportions.
If you ate one of these plates each day, you’d be getting the full five serves, which is the minimum level you need. Don’t ignore this, or put it off until you have more time. Make this your new year’s resolution and improve your health today.
1. Lettuce, pumpkin, tomato, zucchini, potato
The five serves are:
- 5 lettuce leaves
- 5 chunks of pumpkin (about a 2cm wedge)
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 zucchini
- 1 medium potato
How to use these vegies during a day:
- lettuce and tomato on a sandwich at lunch and then cook zucchini fritters with baked potato&pumpkin for dinner
- lettuce, tomato and grated zucchini in a salad at lunch and mashed potato & pumpkin with meat in the evening
- baked potato for lunch and then risotto with pumpkin, zucchini and tomato and a green salad in the evening
2. Tomato pasta sauce, spinach, carrot, mushrooms
The five serves are:
- 1 cup of tomato pasta sauce (2 serves)
- 1 large handful baby spinach
- 1 medium carrot
- about 6 button mushrooms
How to use these vegies during a day:
- mushrooms and spinach on toast for breakfast, grated carrot in your sandwich at lunch and pasta with sauce in the evening
- snack on carrot sticks with hummous or cottage cheese during the day and have pasta with the tomato sauce, baby spinach and thinly sliced mushrooms stirred through in the evening
- mushrooms on toast for breakfast, baby spinach in sandwich at lunch, pasta with sauce and grated carrot stirred through in evening.
3. Bok choy, broccoli, dried shiitake mushrooms, carrot, cherry tomatoes
The five serves are:
- 1 head of bok choy
- 3 – 4 broccoli florets
- 10 small dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 medium carrot
- 1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes
How to use these vegies during a day:
- snack on cherry tomatoes during the day, then use the rest in a stir fry for dinner
- dip raw broccoli, carrot sticks and tomatoes wedges in hummous and have with ryvita for lunch
- stir fry the shiitakes and bok choy with tofu / meat / chicken and serve with rice for dinner
4. Potato, corn, carrot, cucumber, tomato
The five servings are:
- 1 corn cob
- 1 medium potato
- 1 medium carrot
- about 15cm length of cucumber
- 1 medium tomato
How to use these vegies during a day:
- cucumber and tomato on a sandwich at lunch-time and meat with baked potato, boiled corn and carrots in the evening
- salad with tomato, cucumber and carrot at lunch then a barbecue in the evening with potato salad and barbecued corn
- cook the potato in the microwave for lunch and serve with chopped up tomato, cucumber and cheese or tinned fish at lunch-time, then have the corn and carrot with dinner
5. Green beans, tomato, carrot, asparagus, bok choy
The five serves are:
- 8 green beans
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 medium carrot
- 7 thin (4 thick) stems of asparagus (about 2/3 bunch)
- 1 head of bok choy
How to use these vegies during a day:
- tomato with avocado on toast in the morning and a stir fry in the evening with the rest
- tomato and carrot on a sandwich at lunch and then use the rest to make a quick tofu & sesame salad
- poached eggs with asparagus and green beans for lunch and then stir fry in the evening with carrot, bok choy and chopped tomato stirred through
- tomato and carrot on a sandwich at lunch and then a side dish of mixed seasonal greens with the rest in the evening
6. Tomato, spinach, mushroom, carrot, pumpkin
The five serves are:
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 good handful of baby spinach
- 6 button mushrooms
- 1 medium carrot
- 5 chunks of pumpkin (about 2cm wedge)
How to use these vegies during a day:
- mushrooms, spinach and tomato with poached eggs on toast for breakfast, then roasted carrot and pumpkin with dinner
- toss the carrot, pumpkin, wedges of tomato and whole mushrooms in rosemary and olive oil then roast in the oven. Mix through the baby spinach and serve topped with fetta or grilled lamb
- tomato, mushroom and grated carrot in a salad at lunch and then pumpkin, spinach and cinnamon risotto in the evening
7. Mixed beans, lettuce, tomato, tinned beetroot, carrot
The five serves are:
- half a 400g tin of beans (this was a 4 bean mix)
- 5 lettuce leaves
- 1 medium tomato
- 3 baby beetroots (tinned)
- 1 medium carrot
How to use these vegies during a day:
- this plate pretty much represents my lunch yesterday – I had all of this, plus some fresh mint leaves, a dressing of lemon juice and olive oil and a couple of vita-weats
- tomato, lettuce and beetroot in a sandwich or burger at lunch and then throw the beans and carrots in a stew, stir-fry or risotto in the evening
- mash the beans up with some lemon juice, yoghurt and garlic to make a dip and serve this with carrot sticks then have the rest as a salad with your dinner.
NB: Remember these amounts are a guide only. Of course, there will be some variation depending on exactly how big your “medium” carrot really is. However, if you follow these guides you will be very close to the standard five measures and you’ll be doing your health a major favour.
07 January, 2007
Comments
[…] In educational posts, this week, Brys at Cookthink shows us how to prep (and use) fennel, and Food Chronicles gives us a primer on spices, and Kathryn from Limes & Lycopene shows us what five servings of vegetables actually looks like, and in the same vein, Megnut shows us what 200 calories of food looks like. Definitely enlightening. […]
What a great post! It makes it all much simpler to see it graphically. I think when people hear five serves a day they think of a semi trailer backing up to dump a load of veges in the kitchen. This makes it all very accessible.
I agree with Reb above …. takes all the scariness out of 5 serves to see it in pictures. And I like the simple and practical recipes too. Good post!
Thanks Reb and Husky Heaven, I’m hoping it’s a useful resource for people. I agree that five servings sounds like a lot and I think most people give up. However when you break it down over a couple of meals or snacks, it’s much more manageable.
For those of you interested Columbus Foodie has pointed me in the direction of a pictorial guide to 200 calories a day. I’ve blogged about it here.
Thank you – what a great post. I think it’s helpful for people to be able to visualize what a serving of vegetables is so they don’t faint when they hear they need to eat 5 of them! As you so clearly showed – they pretty much fill one dinner plate. Not so much when you think of lunch, dinner, and snacks!
[…] The globe. A detailed Malaysian blog describes shark fin soup, which you should never order because of the cruel finning of the sharks, the lack of medicinal benefit, the off-the-charts mercury content of meat and fin, and because Yao Ming says so. George C calls this a controversial delicacy, but both claims have little bite. From Australia in Limes&Lycopene, Kathryn Elliott features a pictorial guide to the “5 serves of veggies” recommended in forthcoming Australian RDIs; she offers photos to show that 5 serves do not require a semi trailer. From Manila, the marinade for a kilo of Sasama Yakitori relies on coconut vinegar, soy sauce and 15-20 cloves of garlic: the dish is high in lean protein and “recommended for people with hypertension” says Dr. Emer (I might check a creatinine and do a recipe analysis first, there, buddy). The step-by-step preparation photos of the skewered chicken are strangely fixating, as if from a TIA. Seth Godin would take that wet chicken and dry rub it, pressing the difference between ingredients (Hungarian paprika) and cooking (fish rub), even if they’re the same product: some people want a hand held. And from Hungary, medical student N Curse blogterviews (for real) naturopath Tom Greenfield about the Blood Type Diet, the science of which is unfamiliar to many clinicians, and separately about nutrigenomics, also unfamiliar but fast gaining scientific credibility in the West. […]
Thanks Vanessa – I think one of the reasons so many people are not getting their five serves, is that it sounds like so much, that it’s just too hard and why bother. However, there is every reason to make the extra bit of effort and even if you’re not able to do the full five serves, aiming to eat one or two more will improve your health.
Thank you for a marvelous post! I’m linking to it today from my group weight loss site. This week’s Challenge for the team will be to get their five serves – I think this post will be very encouraging to them!!
[…] This week’s challenge, which has been percolating in my devious mind since the beginning, is the FIVE A Day Challenge. Uh-huh…. You know what I mean! This week, you earn the bonus point if you get five servings of fruits and veggies* per day for at least five of the seven days. (see, I’m not without mercy, I wanted to make it all seven!) Now before you get all freaky on me, let me direct you to this marvelous post which explains that getting five servings is not as hard as you might think. Some of you are probably doing it already and don’t even know that you are! Oh – and here’s the government site encouraging 5 a day, looks like it might be a handy resource! […]
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
Goodness, this is one of the best articles I have read on the subject of vegetables and serving sizes. Thanks so much! Im now going to send it to everyone I know.
Hmm. I’m pretty sure that the guidelines state potatoes don’t count (presumably because they are so common in our daily diet) and also that all have to be different so your pasta sauce in the second picture is still one serving, isn’t it?
Theo, here in Australia potatoes can be counted towards the daily five serves – our basic guidelines are here. While I definitely wouldn’t recommend eating five serves of the same vegetable, they don’t all have to be different. So no, the pasta sauce still stand as two serves, given that it’s a whole cup of cooked and one serving is half a cup.
Somehow, I just found this. And what an excellent post it is!
The pictures are an excellent tool for this message. And what I learned is … I need more variety. (Alas, it is the end of winter here and garden pickings are slim.)
I cannot believe how happy I am I have stumbled onto this website! I have never understood what a serve of vegetables should look like and you have simplified it with your fab explanation. I’m going to print it out and show it to my kids to help educate them too. I think the idea of 5 or more servings of vegetables has just overwhelmed me and contributed to my overall feelings of guilt when it comes to food leading to a terrible struggle with my weight I really don’t want this to be passed on to my children, who thankfully are currently at their ideal weight. They don’t need my hangups but I can help to positively educate them with help from people like you. Thank you again!
Oh Jenny, don’t get stressed about the five serves of vegetables. It sounds like so much, doesn’t it? But actually if you have a few at lunch and then a few more at dinner it becomes much easier to think about. And one serve is not huge.
I think one of the easiest ways to look at it is the 50/25/25 rule, which I explain in this post. But basically it means making your diner 50% vegetable – ie filling half your plate with vegetables. You’ll be getting enough food, it’ll be at least three serves (if not more) towards your daily total and it’s easy to remember.
Stop the guilt, do the best you can and try to make changes gradually. If you’re only eating two serves of vegies each day, then aim for three. Once you’ve got that nailed, then up it again. Making slow and steady changes is much the best strategy.
That was a very educational article and the simple explanation and the photographs help you to realize how easy it is, fitting in the five servings of veggies and other “musts” into your daily diet! Really useful and the recipes also are simple and easy to follow! With so much importance given to maintaining our health, these will really help us plan out a nutritional diet for us! It has really made me sit up and realize that planning out a good diet which includes the five servings is really going to work for me!!
What a useful resource to really have a palatable idea of what ‘5’ servings of vegetables really means, and to get an idea that those of us eating a salad at lunch are off to a good start. Sadly, I wish corn on the cob and potatoes counted for more ;)
Great post Kathryne!
I agree that visualizing the 5 recommended servings helps realizing that it’s really easy to incorporate them in the daily plan.
I must admit I don’t vary them that much throughout the day, however.
Another good habit giving you plenty of greens is blending a smoothie for breakfast.
Thank you for this. As everyone has mentioned, seeing it visually is far less daunting. I went to the official 2+5 website and just thought it would be impossible to include 5 vegetables in my diet per day. After seeing your photos, I realised that I do get most of them at dinner, but probably need to top up my lunch and snacks with some vegies too, instead of less healthy options. Cheers. Keep up the great work.
Hi there Kiran, thanks for your comment. For some reason “five serves” sounds like a lot doesn’t it. In my experience to get the five in a day you do need to split them over two meals, it’s hard to get all of those serves with dinner. But if you get one serve at lunch and then snack on some cherry tomatoes or vegie sticks in the afternoon, then it’s much easier. Good luck, would love to know how you go with increasing your veg.
Thank you so much Karen for this post. It certainly makes meal planning a lot easier.
Though I have one request:
If I were to make a ‘meal sized’ salad, what type of guidelines would one follow to ensure i) energy throughout the day ii) the five to seven minimum requirements of vegetables, two to three of protein are met?
Cheers,
A
How fabulous Kathryn!!! That is such a great way to illustrate how to incorporate your produce for the day. I am currently photographing all my meals (between 5-6 meals) and my goal is THE POWER OF 10 (4 fruit & 6 veg serves) so this is such a great way to showcase how I end up eating them throughout my day!!!
I am so glad I have come across your website xx Dani
Hi Kathryn
I typed “how can i eat 5 serves of veg?” into google and your familiar, trusted name popped up. Will definitely be taking some of your tips on board as I train for the Half Marathon. Cheers. Bondi.
Well hello there Mr Bondi, how are you? Hope the five serves information above helps.
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