One of the most common new year resolutions is to eat better. So if improving your diet/nutrition was top of your list, where do you start? Eating 2 pieces of fruit & 5 vegies can be a great place to start. But how much is one serve?
Dietary Guidelines
Dietary guidelines are in place to recommend just how much of the five core food groups we should be eaching each day. These five food groups are:
- Vegetables and legumes
- Fruit
- Grains/ Cereal
- Lean meat/ poultry/ fish/ eggs/ nuts/ seeds/ legumes/ beans (protein)
- Milk/ yoghurt/ cheese & alternatives (dairy)
For improving your diet in the new year a big focus is to increase your fruit and vegetable intake. Two fruit and five vegetables is a good guideline as recommended by Nutrition Australia. There are actually individual recommended serves dependent on age and gender (you can find your recommended intake here: http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/resource/australian-dietary-guidelines-recommended-daily-intakes
Now the next question is what makes up a serve of fruit or vegetables to reach your two and five? This is of course different depending on what type you are eating and how it has been prepared.
Vegetable serve:
A vegetable serve is generally about 75g of the vegetable. In quantities this equates to:
- ½ cup[ cooked green or orange vegetables/ canned vegetables (ensure no added salt)/ cooked dried or canned beans, peas or lentils/ sweet corn
- 1 cup[ green leafy or raw salad vegetables
- ½ of one medium potato, sweet potato, taro or cassava
- 1 medium tomato
Fruit Serve:
For fruit, one fruit is not always one serve and dried fruit tends to be a small portion to equate to one serve. Generally a serve of fruit is about 150g. Examples are:
- 1 medium apple, banana, orange, pear
- 2 small apricots, kiwi fruits, plums
- 1 cup of diced or canned fruit (ensure no added sugar)
- ½ cup fruit juice (ensure no added sugar)
- 30g dried fruit (4 dried apricot halves/ 1 ½ tablespoons of sultanas)
These can be surprising and even confusing when first looking at standard serves, but if all else fails remember more vegetables; less saturated fats/ salts/ added sugars and alcohol.
More information:
Source: Nutrition Australia
Title: Australian Dietary Guidelines Standard Serves
Read Time: 5-10 Minutes