Skip to main content

Nick has a go



Following Dagfinn Aune and colleagues' call for both women and men to eat at least ten 80 gram portions of vegetables and fruit (V&F) a day (see the article 
'Five-a-day? Ten? Lucky thirteen?'), I thought I would see if I could squeeze ten portions of V&F into my habitual meal structure, viz: a hearty breakfast (~600g), a wholesome lunch (~470g) and a modest dinner (~260g).

The hearty breakfast (~600g)

The hearty breakfast required little change. I had been breakfasting on porridge accompanied with two portions of fruit followed with a generous (~30g) mix of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and lubricated throughout with a very large dollop (~100g) of organic plain yoghurt for years. Adding a third 80g portion of fruit was not difficult:
Porridge - ~230g
Portion (80g) of fruit x 3 - ~240g
Sunflower and pumpkin seed mix - ~30g
Yoghurt - ~100g
a total weight of meal - ~600g
One of the first things I noticed when I took on this challenge was how small an 80g portion of V&F can be, e.g.
one small-to-medium-sized apple, two small-ish clementines, six medium-sized strawberries, one small-to-medium sized potato, six whole mature mange-tout pods, four medium-sized broccoli florets.

The wholesome lunch (~470g)

My daily 'wholesome lunch' has been a main course of either meat or fish (~80g) accompanied with three 80g portions of raw or steamed vegetables for a long time. Again, adding an 80g portion of fruit as a dessert was not difficult:
Portion of meat or fish - ~80g
Portion (80g) of vegetables x 3 - ~240g
Portion (80g) of fruit - ~80g
a total weight of meal - ~400g

The modest dinner (~260g)

I usually eat a modest evening meal, and try to finish eating and drinking by seven in order to give my digestive system the best chance of completing most of its work by ten. I am told that this:
  • gives me the best chance of a good night's sleep
  • reduces my likelihood of putting on weight or fat
I rarely want to stop work at, say, five fifteen, in order to cook to eat at six. Instead I do another hour or so's work and raid the fridge around six thirty. Regulars are (i) a slice of German-style rye bread spread generously with ~40g of houmous, pesto or coleslaw, (ii) half a portion (five pieces) of sun-dried tomatoes (~40g), (iii) half a portion of guacamole (~40g) and (iv) an 80g portion of fruita total meal of ~200g.
So, if 40g of coleslaw counts as a half portion of vegetables and 40g of sun-dried tomatoes counts as half a portion of fruit (and I think they do) I am on track for four and a half portions of vegetables and five portions of fruit - nine and a half portions of V&F a day in all.
Perhaps I could:
  • nibble an 80g portion of raw vegetable (e.g. mange-tout, broccoli) while preparing lunch
  • count the 40g of guacamole (largely avocado) at dinner as a half portion of fruit
  • introduce a mid-afternoon banana
  • make lunch a vegetarian meal of four portions of V&F
  • aim at eight 100g portions rather than ten 80g portions? After all, most medium-size apples, for instance, even after coring, weigh ~80g
(17453)  Nick Anderson. Green Health Watch Magazine 52 13.8.2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Essential fatty acids reduced carbohydrate cravings

In 2005 Dr. Stephen Cavallino persuaded ten of his 'carbohydrate addict', overweight patients (eight females, two males) to: „     put themselves onto a higher-protein, lower carbohydrate diet for eight-weeks „     add a 'triply essential' fatty acid omega-6:omega-3 ~2:1 daily dietary supplement for the second four-weeks of the trial (2,900 milligrams daily, as provided by LINKYES Ultimate EFAs) „     assess themselves before starting the higher-protein, lower carbohydrate diet, then keep a daily log of their experience, particularly with regard to:     „     appetite    „     carbohydrate craving     „     weight reduction     „     general energy     „     general alertness Analysis of the logs justified the following conclusions: „     Adopting a higher-protein, lower carb...
Post a Comment
Read more

OsteoTrace

OsteoTrace is one of my favourite dietary supplements. I take two tablets a day (with food) to help stop my osteoporosis getting worse, and with the aim of preventing arthritis developing. Most people take it for their arthritis and arthritis pain. OsteoTrace is the mix of minerals and vitamins developed by Dr. Rex Newnham to treat (successfully) his own worsening arthritis. Principal amongst the minerals is boron, following Rex's observation that the lower the levels of boron in the soil and water of an area, the higher the levels of arthritis in the people living in that area. Each tablet of OsteoTrace contains three milligrams of boron (in the form sodium tetraborate), so three tablets a day taken with food (the therapeutic dosage recommended by Rex) keeps you at the Optimum Daily Allowance (ODA) of nine milligrams and well below the Safe Upper Limit/Tolerable Upper Intake Level (SUL/TUIL) of 20 milligrams a day. The other fifteen nutrients in OsteoTrace were chosen specific...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cinnamon defats liver

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the build-up of excessive fat in the liver cells of people who drink little or no alcohol. It is the main cause of liver (hepatic) damage worldwide, and affects up to a quarter of US adults - an estimated 90 million people. 1 When more than 10% of the weight of their liver is from fat (an alternative definition of NAFLD) people are more prone to inflammation and scarring of the liver, becoming (i) overweight or obese and often (ii) 'insulin resistant' (see GHWM47p10). Severe cases of NAFLD can even trigger liver failure. If you are not attracted by the raft of drugs and side effects that orthodox medicine offers people with NAFLD, cinnamon may be a powerful alternative. One meta-analysis of ten trials (covering a combined 543 patients) found that various cinnamon doses (between 120mg and 6g per day for between four and eighteen weeks) significantly reduced (i) fasting blood glucose levels, (ii) blood total and LDL (...
Post a Comment
Read more