Five a day?

For many years we’ve implored everyone to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. All the pupils who passed through my classroom had those three words drilled into them ! Now it seems that unfortunately, most people in the UK probably only eat two or three portions. We know we need the vitamins, fibre and minerals provided by the colourful variety available to us, but whilst knowing their importance , we just don’t eat enough. In the news this week we learnt that our intake should increase to ten portions. I’ve recently been making Ratatouille to be boxed as two servings and frozen for later. The mixture of peppers, aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes with onions and garlic are such a good way of getting a variety of veggies. But we also need to know what a portion looks like – it’s as much as you can hold in your hand. Also it’s worth knowing that potatoes don’t count! This year they have been harvested early as the extreme heat and lack of rainfall means they’ve stopped growing earlier in the season, so they’ll be smaller than usual. As far as fruits are concerned ,berries are very valuable, so it’s a good idea to snack on blueberries, raspberries or strawberries to increase our intake. Happy eating!