Last November the head of the Royal College of GPs said that five a day was not possible for some people purely on cost grounds. Today the advice is that we should eat ten a day. Now I grow as many vegetables and a little fruit as the poor soil that I have allows, There is no doubt that to pick something and cook it the same day gives you tastes that you have probably forgotten when you rely on the supermarkets. Vegetables in France when eating out are different, when you get any. Often they will have been overcooked to any early death, or several have been put together in the form of a puréed little cake. I like my own grown and eat smaller quantities of meat which can be expensive. But ten lots of fruit or vegetable seems excessive unless you are pulling apples, oranges or pears out of your pocket for regular snacks to help you through the day. I wonder how many of you could look at what you have munched today, and think you have reached the target?
Here the 5 a day consists of onion, corriander in Tacos and the chillies, tomatoes and garlic to make the accompanying salsa. There is plenty of vitamin "T" too, however, I don´t think that will decrease the obesity rate!
I used to have my 10 a day, then the buggers changed Opal Fruits to Starburst and I didn't know what to do...
We did have a very large portion of a spicy stuffed cabbage dish this evening, stewed plums to follow, lots of fruit on muesli for breakfast, and salad in a lunchtime sandwich. Even then it's probably not ten a day, though I suppose it depends on what size a portion is.
My preference is for grapes taken in liquid form. Not sure if it would be good to double the quantity though.
Well yesterday: toast with a little marmalade (does that count as one?) plus freshly squeezed orange juice 1 Snack of potato crisps (potatoes?) Lunch spanish type stew with chickpeas, potato, pumkin, onion/celery, turnip in a meat stock. Lots of veg but what is a portion??? A yoghurt with a little apple 3 ??? Dinner salad of lettuce and tomato - with cheese and a few slices of a salami type sausage. Bread 2. I drank about 2 pints of beer, 3 mugs of tea and ate half a bar of chocolate (and 4 plain biscuits). I thought I was quite healthy yesterday. I'd struggle. Farewell my friends; clearly I am not long for this world.
Just an aside here in southern spain the price of green beans, peas, broccoli and various green veg has gone through the roof. I saw flat beans at 8 Euros a kilo. The reason/excuse is the recent bad weather namely here in Spain. And fruit has gone up as well. And I'm not a person who takes much notice of prices when I shop for food. That doesn't make it easy if you're on a budget Yet I can buy a kilo of juicy fat chicken wings for between 3 and 4 Euros a kilo .
True - and nor that in other countries the portion sizes are different from here. The Japanese, for example, are advised to eat 17 portions a day - but a 'portion' over there is 50g whereas here it is 80g. And then there is also the issue of what constitutes an appropriately nutritious vegetable. The Queen may be considered to have a healthy diet because she apparently munches on cucumber sandwiches a lot, but does she, for example, have any broccoli which is far more nutritious? And how many consider they are being healthy by having cooked vegetables every day without realising that the cooking process removes the bulk of the nutrition? My wife and I never cooked vegetables, fed them raw to our kids in salads - green tree (broccoli), white tree (cauliflower), carrot and cabbage (instead of lettuce) - not really for nutritional reasons, but because they were a damned sight more tasty, and the kids wouldn't eat them any other way.
As long as you enjoyed it is my maxim - and I'm sure you would have. Potatoes aren't classified as vegetables though - being full of starch, they are carbohydrates and therefore frowned upon by the authorities. Mind you, it was the authorities who fed them to the Irish until the potato blight appeared on the scene - after which they let them die.
Cauliflower (large) €1.15 each French Broccoli €1.20 kilo Spanish Carrots €0.80 kilo French Parsnip €1.40 kilo French Brussel Sprouts €3.00 kilo French Bramley Apples €1.50 kilo French Oranges €2.00 bag of 10 Spanish Bananas €0.70 kilo Costa Rica Just some of the prices for things we bought or noticed yesterday in our supermarket. The prices for items that are not grown in France, Spain or Italy tend to be quite high sometimes, and there was an increase after the bad weather in Spain. Nearly all salad crops are grown here, along with tomatoes. Vine tomatoes €0.95 kilo. Most things are loose to reduce packaging, and then of course there are the open air markets that sometimes, not always, are cheaper. I do not know how these prices compare with the UK, but I don't think we have to import so much of our food, so hopefully it is cheaper here.
Just read in one of my wife's magazines that purple veg have an anti ageing effect on your skin. Solution - cook everything with beetroot!
Interesting, may have to get my class to use that in their advertising. We're starting a little enterprise soon - part of which involves growing and selling purple carrots & purple tomatoes - the colour matches our schools colours. Thanks for that info.
When I went to primary school beetroot was served up as a hot cooked vegetable with a school dinner. At home I had only ever had it as a salad vegetable, cold, and often it had been stored as a pickle in vinegar. Today when I can get some to grow, to have them freshly picked and cooked I eat them with salad, while you will often find them served raw and thinly sliced as a garnish with a restaurant meal. Whatever they are very good unless served up as beetroot juice.
For some reason Frenchie they always did strange things with school dinners. I was always amazed that they managed to make all vegetables look the same colour - they nearly put me off peas for life, now I love the things. We try to grow as many of our vegetables as possible - but last year we had to share them with voles - this year is all out war !
