Fruit and Fruit
 

This is part an update on my thread in Health re Mum & I losing weight together, and part a request for the suggestions/ support/ sharing the Cellar does so well.

I saw the practice nurse on Monday and although there was very little she told me that was new, she did challenge me a little. The first you've already helped with. I have to paint my toenails (I will explain if you want to know). The second is to eat two pieces of fruit a day.

In the three days since the appointment I admit I have not done this.
I've had an apple each day. Oh, I lie - I made a fruit shake for breakfast yesterday too. But I'm just not a fruit person.

Now in this country, the healthy eating recommendation is called "5 a day". Five portions of fruit and/OR veg a day. Now that I'm in a healthy eating mindset, I try my hardest to stick to this. Try? Hard? Check this out and see if you meet it every day...

I MUCH prefer vegetables to fruit. Had it been a two veg homework I would have been fine. So my question is, can I go back and say I've switched fruit for veg?

Or is she just assuming those referred to her have no idea of healthy eating (some of the things she said point to that - for example she doesn't expect weight loss of more than 2lb a month to start with) and is just trying to move towards my five a day?

Or should I be a good girl, stop whining and eat the damned fruit - it's not going to kill me. I can do it if I stick to fruit shakes for breakfast - 1 portion of frozen berries, 1 banana, 1/2 glass skimmed milk all blitzed together. It's just some mornings I want muesli or Special K...

Answers/ advice much appreciated. I'd love to hear whether other Dwellars meet the ideal. I can think of some I would expect to, but you never know. Even if you just want to tell me what fruit and veg you enjoy it will help motivate me. It's the Food & Drink thread, go for it!

the more varied your types of fruit and veg, the better -they have different combinations of vitamins/minerals. the typical recommendation is for slightly less than half of your intake to be fruit.

didn't she ask you about your current diet before she started dishing out advice? Maybe she noticed the lack of fruit, so was trying to direct you towards a better balance?

Were you really eating 5 a day? Just because you knew it doesn't mean you were doing it, perhaps her challenge was to actually DO it and she picked fruit because it's more "instant" as it doesn't have the "preparation excuse" (in other word she was taking the more one-size-fits-all approach). In this case maybe substituting veg for fruit would still meet her challenge.

What 5 portions of veg would you typically eat in a day? 5 cups of peas? or spinach, carrots, tomato (fruit really), squash and aubergine? Describe your 5-a-day to this point. and how often you would actually achieve it. Do you try to ensure they are all different colours?

here, the current advice is for nine smaller portions, four of which should be fruit and 5 veg, because more smaller portions are easier to 'swallow" ;) and the greater number should lead to more variety.

I'm terrible, beest's great -he has about 5 pieces of fruit at work during the day, salad in his lunch and then veg with dinner. Although so far today I've had a large plum and 1/3 of a coconut and it's not yet 10am, this is far from typical for me.

She has not asked me anything about my current diet.
This really is the softly softly approach, to encourage a healthy lifestyle long term.
Most people get referred to her because they have heart problems, diabetes, or some other sort of obesity-related issue (as opposed to just obesity, like me, but I requested this). It seems to be assumed that they have never addressed their eating habits previously.

My 5 a day really does vary. Part of the recommendation here is that they must vary - there was an issue with a baked bean manufacturer (or maybe one of the supermarkets - I can't remember) having misleading labelling.

I regularly eat:
Carrot
Baked beans
Orange juice
Cabbage
Apple
Banana
Mixed berries (frozen)
Onion
Peppers
Tomato
Spring onions
Potato
Sweet potato
Lettuce
Courgette
Strawberry
Peas
Sweetcorn

More occasionally (once a week or less)
Melon
Cherries
Spinach
Aubergine

ETA - Mum & I are cooking from the WeightWatchers and Slimming Wold cookbooks and various online healthy eating sites. Seriously, we are vegelicious as well as the additional fruit (which Mum is better at that I am). Every dinner has veg in and beside it. I may not always meet the target in the strictest daily sense, but in a week I am confident I meet it.

I do see what you mean re the different benefits from the fruit though.

An apple a day is halfway there, isn't it, to your current goal of 2 a day.
Add a smoothie now and again for breakfast ... a banana occasionally, the odd glass of orange juice, a handful of cherries and you're there ...

Suck it up and eat the 2 fruits would be my vote. The reasons for that recommendation are; not couching your diet change in negatives (stop eating this, that, and the other thing), and also it acts as replacement for something else you'd likely eat that would be less healthy (I need a snack... cookies? no, I've got to eat that other piece of fruit still).

I'm with you though, I eat a lot more veggies than fruit.

I guess my issue is that the approach does not fit the stage I am at.
I need a snack?... No I don't.

3 out of 3 so far. I am leaning...

Eat the damn fruit

Ah c'mon Classic.
You can give me better than that.

What fruits do you eat a day?
Not a challenge, just asking for feedback.

I love frozen fruit, especially blueberries and blackberries. They sell them in big bags, and they're less expensive than fresh. I pop them like candy, although they will stain my fingers blue for the rest of the day so I have to be careful to only use my left hand so I don't mess up my laptop touchpad.

I don't like apples, never have, but I'll eat the remaining pieces if Minifob doesn't finish his, just because I hate seeing it go to waste. Other than that I sometimes do bananas or strawberries at breakfast, and very rarely we'll have a box of mandarin oranges and I'll eat 2-3 a day until they're gone. I hate drinking orange juice. I love pears, but for some reason I never end up buying them.

If you're not that keen on eating fruit, why not get a bottle of juice and stick it in the fridge. On the days you just can't face another piece of fruit, have a glass of juice instead. As long as it's pure fruit juice with no sugar or preservatives etc, and you can vary the type you keep in the fridge.

If you don't eat the actual fruit though, you should probably take some kind of fibre replacement because that's one of the benefits of fruit. We usually eat them raw, and lots of them have lots of fibre.

Apples - one for breakfast - EVERY SINGLE DAY. I also have a banana and/or an orange, well tangerine actually.
Grapes when they are in season & black or raspberries.... but thats not year round.
Oh and I love my OJ too!

Where is the large photo of Sheldon holding grapes?

:bolt:

We tend to follow the harvest with fruit. When apples come in we pretty much go hog wild and taper off through out storage season. During blueberry season we eat right form the bushes in our yard and supplement with farm bought or at our friends or we go picking or D) all of the above. We freeze a fair amount and sometimes make jam. Strawberries come in and it's the same damn thing. We usually buy about 40 qts from the farm and freeze them (about $100) and make strawberry banana smoothies all winter and spring. In the winter oranges come into season and we eat those until they start to taste like winter tomatoes.

For me I love food too much to eat shitty food. I used to be a bread whore, now I will only eat really exceptional bread. If it's not a party in my mouth then it's not invited or something like that. We freeze a lot of swiss chard, beet greens, collards, etc. and eat those all winter. In the spring we have tons of sugar snap peas and we eatthose until we are sick of them which coincides with when they have gone by. It seems to work out well that way. Just when you can't stand to eat another bite of something it is no longer in season and the next thing is.

Especially in winter, eating all those storage crops like carrots and squash and parsnips, and beets and grains and meat, by the time spring gets here you can see why people would eat dandelion greens. They're the first friggin green thing in six months. Eat those fuckers on down!

Yeah, most days I do my five and a couple of the ones the rest of you missed.

urp.

Im not good at getting fruit or veggies into my daily diet. I have to consciously choose them and I do a couple of things that help me. First of all I bought one of these apple doohickies that slice an apple into wedges when you push it down over the apple. I then put the pieces into a baggie and and keep it near me...I will munch on them druing the day till they are gone. (Now, if I would only do that with veggies, I'd be home free, but I have to remember to cut them up and for some reason, that just doesnt happen. ) I also buy bags of frozen blueberries like Clod, but I mix them with plain yogurt. One bag with one big size container of yogurt and then I can scoop some into a bowl whenever I want. It makes a great snack when I'm slumming on the computer.

You can buy precut celery and carrots at the grocery store these days.

We all want what we can't have, I guess.

I can't have fruit or vegetables due to intestinal scarring from Crohn's disease. I miss them.

(Except brussel sprouts. They just smell ugly.) :D

does fruit in your yogurt count?

Oh and Snap Peas are my fav veggie. great for munching

Jesus fucking Christ Bri, does every post you make have to be about sex?
Give it a fucking rest already this is about food, for fuck's sake.

OK, then my vote is suck it up and eat the fruit. :D

...but next time you see her, don't waste any more of your or her time. Tell her what you know, what you're doing, what you've tried, what worked and what didn't and why you think she might be able to help you. All cards on the table. If she didn't ask and you didn't tell it's no flipping wonder her advice makes you go hmmm....

But Fruit and Veg is still better than just veg. When I notice my fruit intake has been lacking, I buy more exotic fruit. ....when it's about to go off and reduce to a fraction of it's price. Sometimes i then just watch it go off, but if you're in frugal mode, having a new piece of fruit that needs eating now might give you the nudge to eat it rather than contemplate it and decide you won't like it before you try it (like I do).

BTW, you mentioned not needing a snack. Snacking is not bad when you're trying to lose weight. just snack healthy, don't graze all day. little and often is a better approach to food. if you get really hungry between meals, you're often tempted to eat way to much at mealtimes.

And don't forget to drink water by the bucketload.

Had my fruit shake this morning.
And lunch is leftovers from last night - carror in spagetti bolognaise? I worked funnily enough. Along with peppers and onions of course, as well as the tomato base for the sauce.

Yes - I am drinking bucketloads of water. And peeing for England as a result :)

I know grazing is good, it's just not for me. I can happily eat three meals a day and not need anything else. And the only hunger I feel is half an hour before the next meal, which is the right kind of hunger. The kind you had as a child when you could smell your Mum cooking.

Thanks for all the feedback folks. Keep it coming.

I'm in love with you now.

Re my previous post - I was sober, promise!
Notable mistakes:
Carrot not carror
Spaghetti not spagetti
It worked not I worked

I would also like to amend, "smell your Mum cooking" to "smell what your Mum was cooking". My mother has never been cooked in our household, and no-one (except perhaps my father) has ever eaten her.

And I want to be a prrof reader? Sheesh...

:biglaugha :lol2:

Frozen fruit is much healthier than fresh because its picked much later in the ripening process and flash frozen. "Fresh" fruit in the store is picked before its fully ripe to allow for shipping time.

Sundae - I'm not a fruit person either. My wife eats tons of it and fusses at me because I don't eat much at all. I'm more a a meat and grains guy - oatmeal, wheat germ, wheat bread/crackers, etc. I eat most of the grains dry - with milk or a protein shake.

But she has a point. So since I like the roughness of grains I thought - why not dried fruit? Problem solved. I'll eat any dried fruit - I mix it with oatmeal or wheat germ for breakfast and maybe once for a snack.

That may or may not work for you but its worth a try. I will warn you about one thing tho. Dried fruit is often preserved with sulfer dioxide which is about the only thing on earth I'm allergic to - but only in large doses. Once I ate a bag of dried apples in about 30 seconds - I was starving - and my throat just closed up. So, start slow if you try any to make sure there are no problems.

Good luck with your effort. Its tough to make dietary changes but you will get used to it quickly and will soon lose interest in the food you are excluding from your diet.

Tomato is a fruit. That is one of few fruits I will eat. I prefer veggies, fruit can be sweet/sour/bitter/woody and all the same item- in different times of the year, and sometimes in the same package. Veggies seem to stay more consistent with texture and taste.

I prefer dried fruit as well... maybe add some dried apricots or cranberries to your salad.

Not sure if you have them over there, but we have V8 that is fruit juice, not tomato juice based. Just watch the salt/sugar issue... I know the V8 has loads of sodium.

:joylove:

Does eating a whole box of Mr Kipling's (exceedingly good!) bramley apple pies, count as eating fruit?

yup. one portion. maybe 2 at a stretch. But it also counts as three days of carbs and calories.....

Have to admit, I've been having Cornflakes (capital C because they are Mr Kellogg's) for the last few days. I can't wait for the 'rents to go away (27th) because then I can start having breakfast alone.

I do love them dearly - of course! And I know they took me in at a time when they thought tey were well shot of kinder. But the truth is, they are at their most active in the morning. So it's like having breakfast in Piccadilly Circus. The washing machine is on its final spin (LOUD!) Dad is in the shower and Mum is buzzing in and out on some cleaning mission.

When they go away I'll wake up at the same time, but I'll be able to drink in peace. And then sweep the floor/ hoover/ do the things Mum does in my own sweet time. Lovely.

That is a generational trait I think. Lotta folks from then get up and goo go go then slow down as they day wears on and relax in the evening.

Of what do you speak here milady?

Just dipped into page one of the thread, SG, but take a try at aubergines Parmigiana or lasagna or other pasta -- preferably in whole wheat for fiber's effect in easing your blood glucose rise and your body's subsequent effort to deal with it. There's a couple veg right there, with the tomato along with the aubergine. [Eggplant to the Yanks.] See if you enjoy the dishes.

Without fiber along, white flour and products made from it metabolize about as fast as sugar does, and your system is promptly full of your cells' basic fuel, glucose. Lots of blood glucose tells your pancreas to make with the insulin, and in corresponding amounts. Sure, it controls the blood glucose all right, by telling your fat cells to store that glucose -- stored as fat. But with plenty of fiber in play there too, the starch carbs enter your body from your digestion only slowly, and there's a lot less glucose rise for the pancreas to regulate at any one time: a lot less insulin gets pumped and a lot less of a signal to store glucose as fat is given.

Beware, foot... I think Brianna wants your... yoghurt. ;)

Which some people claim improves the interior bacteria.:cool:

Ah now see UG, here is the problem with just dipping in.
I love me some veggies. It's eating the fruit that's an issue.

Anyway, turns out it was all wrong. Well - of course eating fruit is never really wrong. But she (the Nurse) was supposed to give me a Goal booklet. I have to choose a Goal every fortnight, so that by the end of the year I am living healthily. Except she chose the first Goal for me, and it was a tricky one. In fact there are more than 26, so you are able to pick & choose.

I admit I've been very naughty and had wholemeal toast, Bran Flakes (which I admit are too sweet for me anyway) and other healthy-but-not-fruit-brekkers since I found this out. Still, the 'rents go away again (house-sitting) next Friday. I'll be back on the fruit. And when I say drinking in peace, I mean drinking fruit. Promise.

not fermented SG? ;)

Good for you - Keep at it!
Kcal in < Kcal out = weight loss.

Wot Classic sed... and the latest from the laboratories is that every diet works as long as it has that formula. Kcal in < Kcal out.

Kinda makes you want to chain the guys in white lab-coats to treadmills, though...