5 servings per day
In reading about nutrition recently, I have noticed that the FDA reccomends
5 to 9 servings per day of fruits and vegetables.
If you search on My Pyramid.gov you'll find the same document I found about fruits and veggies. I think it's pretty confusing to think about how you would actually eat that much of anything in a day, and how they decide what counts as a fruit or vegetable.
I mean, one serving is either a cup of fresh fruits/veggies or a half cup of cooked fruits/veggies. I don't think I eat much more than 5 cups of food per day, period. Should the majority of my calorie intake be fruits and veggies? I don't think so... I thought starchy grains formed the base of most diets?
It's disturbing because I currently eat much less than 5 servings, let alone 9!!!
Breakfast- 0 servings
Lunch- 1/2 serving sometimes (fruit juice, dried fruit, or veggies with dip)
Dinner- 0-2 servings (If we have spaghetti the sauce could count for part of a serving, and if we have stir-fry with veggies that probably gives me a cup of cooked veggies, meaning 2 servings)
At most I'm eating 2 and a half servings... And I think I eat more fruits and veggies than the average person.
More confusingly, this "Fact Sheet" put out by the FDA, "Fabulous Fruits, Versatile Vegetables" identifies beans, (chickpeas, pinto beans, soy beans, kidney beans), corn, and roots (potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions) as vegetables. Um, I don't think it will help much if I get 5 servings a day of starchy or high-protein foods like beans and potatoes, that's not the point of eating "fruits" and "veggies", is it?
Aug. 30 edit: The more I think about it, the weirder it is! I mean, if corn and potatoes are vegetables, and kidney beans too, then why not rice and wheat? They all come from plants, after all, and that seems to be the only pattern here!
And this system, counting by amount, doesn't take into account the nutrition lost by cooking and storing the food, and the different nutrition values of different "veggies" and "fruits". I think you should have to eat more of a cooked veggie than a fresh veggie for the same "serving" because cooked veggies lose some of their vitamins. (except things like beans and corn that must be cooked to be eaten, and you should still need 1 cup of those, not a half cup, for a single serving.... NOT THAT THOSE ARE EVEN VEGETABLES!)
I may write more about this later.
5 to 9 servings per day of fruits and vegetables.
If you search on My Pyramid.gov you'll find the same document I found about fruits and veggies. I think it's pretty confusing to think about how you would actually eat that much of anything in a day, and how they decide what counts as a fruit or vegetable.
I mean, one serving is either a cup of fresh fruits/veggies or a half cup of cooked fruits/veggies. I don't think I eat much more than 5 cups of food per day, period. Should the majority of my calorie intake be fruits and veggies? I don't think so... I thought starchy grains formed the base of most diets?
It's disturbing because I currently eat much less than 5 servings, let alone 9!!!
Breakfast- 0 servings
Lunch- 1/2 serving sometimes (fruit juice, dried fruit, or veggies with dip)
Dinner- 0-2 servings (If we have spaghetti the sauce could count for part of a serving, and if we have stir-fry with veggies that probably gives me a cup of cooked veggies, meaning 2 servings)
At most I'm eating 2 and a half servings... And I think I eat more fruits and veggies than the average person.
More confusingly, this "Fact Sheet" put out by the FDA, "Fabulous Fruits, Versatile Vegetables" identifies beans, (chickpeas, pinto beans, soy beans, kidney beans), corn, and roots (potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions) as vegetables. Um, I don't think it will help much if I get 5 servings a day of starchy or high-protein foods like beans and potatoes, that's not the point of eating "fruits" and "veggies", is it?
Aug. 30 edit: The more I think about it, the weirder it is! I mean, if corn and potatoes are vegetables, and kidney beans too, then why not rice and wheat? They all come from plants, after all, and that seems to be the only pattern here!
And this system, counting by amount, doesn't take into account the nutrition lost by cooking and storing the food, and the different nutrition values of different "veggies" and "fruits". I think you should have to eat more of a cooked veggie than a fresh veggie for the same "serving" because cooked veggies lose some of their vitamins. (except things like beans and corn that must be cooked to be eaten, and you should still need 1 cup of those, not a half cup, for a single serving.... NOT THAT THOSE ARE EVEN VEGETABLES!)
I may write more about this later.