Where's the Veg?

Eating lasagne in a pub is a typical example of this; it comes with chips and garlic bread. Perhaps you might also serve this yourself at home. Now, I'm no advocate of low carb diets, as carbohydrates and in particular wholegrains are an important source of nutrients, but serving three lots with one meal, what's that all about? I would have thought a nice green salad would have been a better side dish. Admittedly there will be some veg lurking in the lasagne - some onions and tomato or at the very least tomato puree and you might get the likes of peppers, courgettes and mushrooms in a veggie version - but in my book, that doesn't mean you can skimp on the side salad or veg.

Not only are salad and vegetables rich in fibre, various vitamins, minerals and other plant components beneficial to health, but they add very few extra calories to a meal. The larger portions of richer food than we tend to eat when we go out mean that we are already consuming more than usual, but add chips and garlic bread and you can easily consume an extra 500 calories. Even if you aren't overweight this is an issue, as over the course of a year have this many calories in excess of your needs only once weekly and you will gain half a stone. Fair enough if you monitor what you eat and your weight regularly, eating a bit extra from time to time doesn’t hurt; but many of us aren’t in such good control as this.

Although you might not like to make a fuss and ask for an alternative side dish with your main course, many pubs and restaurants will gladly swap you something else that they serve with other items on the menu. So if your lasagne, shepherd's pie or curry comes with chips, why not consider switching these for something greener?



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Want to Avoid a Fussy Eater? Eat Up Your Fruit and Veg Early On

It makes perfect sense to eat well during pregnancy, which includes ensuring a good intake of fruit and veg; indeed many expectant mothers take steps to improve their diet if they had not already done so. However, new research from the United States, suggests there is yet another reason to eat healthily while pregnant; eating more fruit and vegetables appears to increase children's acceptance of these on weaning.

In the study conducted at the Monell Center in Philadelphia, which involved 46 babies, those whose mothers drank carrot juice a number of times each week during pregnancy ate almost twice as much when offered carrot-flavoured cereal. Another study carried out there showed that breastfed infants ate more peach when offered this than those who were fed formula milk, which may relate to the fact that the mothers who breastfed also ate more fruit. It has been suggested that flavours from what the mother eats are transmitted through the placenta and via breast milk. In the peach study, green beans were also offered to infants, but both breastfed and bottle fed infants were reluctant to take these, possibly due to the fact that neither sets of mothers ate these frequently in their diet. However, repeated exposure to these over an 8 day period increased their consumption in both groups of babies.

This suggests that it is only those foods that babies are exposed to during their time in the womb or through breastfeeding for which an advantage is conferred, but that when provided with the opportunity to try them frequently during weaning their acceptance to them is increased. Green vegetables are particularly unpopular amongst infants and young children due to their bitter taste, so providing plenty of chances to try these is especially important.
The take home message to prevent fussy eating in your children is to eat a varied diet during pregnancy and breastfeed if you can; whether breastfed or bottle fed, introduce a range of foods early during weaning. However, remember that current guidelines advise weaning should ideally start at 6 months of age and definitely shouldn't begin till 17 weeks; some foods should also be avoided initially due to the risk of allergies or safety issues. Further advice on weaning can be found here.

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A Vegetarian Diet May Lower Lower Heart Disease Risk by as Much as One Third

If you're amongst the 5% of people in the UK who follows a vegetarian diet, there could be a range of reasons why you choose to avoid meat and fish. However, for some people the decision to limit or avoid animal produce is made as they see this as a healthier option. Indeed a recent piece of research suggests they could be right.

Scientists at the University of Oxford recruited just short of 45,000 people to take part in a study to investigate whether a vegetarian diet can help to lower the risk of developing heart disease. They collected information regarding food choices and known risk factors for heart disease from participants, as well as using hospital records and death registrations to determine who had gone on to experience heart disease and die from it as a result. Those taking part in the study were a mix of meat eaters (66%) and vegetarians (34%) and the findings between the two groups were compared.

The results showed that heart disease was 32% less likely to occur or be the cause of death in vegetarians. Even when other risk factors for heart disease were controlled for, the results still showed that following a vegetarian diet made you less susceptible to the disease.

While the study was generally sound, it had one main flaw - the participants were actively recruited. Unlike research where the subjects are randomly assigned, people were invited to take and it is well known that those that usually volunteer for health studies are already conscious of their health and not a good representative of a group as a whole. While you could argue that vegetarians are largely more concerned for their health, this is not necessarily the case owing to the fact that there are many reasons to avoid meat. You could follow a vegetarian diet, yet rely heavily on cheese and vegetarian convenience food, which are high in saturated fat.

Although it was suggested that following a vegetarian diet was likely to benefit heart disease risk by favourably modifying factors such as cholesterol and blood pressure, conclusions could not be drawn in relation to this, as inadequate data had been obtained - participants were merely invited to have these measured rather than it being a requirement of the study. More research is therefore needed to fill in the gaps in this study.

One question though is whether vegetarians have a lower risk of heart disease due to their avoidance of meat or because they have a higher intake of fruit, vegetables and pulses, which are rich in antioxidants, folate and fibre. Certainly meat can be high in saturated fat if you do not choose lean cuts or opt for more processed products, but beef, pork, poultry, game and offal have a fat content typically lower than 5%. If you continued to eat meat, but chose those low in fat and included plenty of other plant-based foods in your diet, would your likelihood of developing heart disease be as low as someone who is vegetarian? It's certainly an interesting thought.

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Sunny Fruit and Veg Offerings...

A week's holiday might be associated with indulgent eating, but this doesn't need to be the case. While I'm not going to say that I didn't treat myself to cake, ice cream and other treats on my recent week in the sun, it was certainly very easy to eat plenty of fruit and veg. Each morning at breakfast there were freshly squeezed fruit juices, slices of melon, papaya and pineapple, as well as a selection of whole fresh fruits and dried fruit. In the evening there was a wide range of salad veg and I was surprised how enjoyable the blanched broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans and peas were from this spread; a number of hot vegetable-based dishes were also on offer each day. The only area where the buffet was lacking were dishes that included pulses or nuts; for vegetarians or vegans who would usually rely on these for their main source of protein, they would have been disappointed, as these did not make an appearance all week.

Staying at this hotel - or at any similar around the world - you would struggle not to meet your 5 A Day target for fruit and veg. Many of the factors which stand in the way of adequate fruit and veg consumption are removed. Purchase and preparation have been taken care of and with so much choice, you are bound to find some you enjoy and don't run the risk of getting bored. Admittedly you could have succumbed to the temptation of the bread, pastries and cheese at breakfast or the desserts in the evening, just as you might as you wandered through a supermarket. However, there is also something about good weather that encourages you to eat well; fruit and salads are much more appealing when you don't feel the cold. If you treat a holiday as an opportunity to take good care of yourself and be more active than you would usually have the opportunity to at home, eating well goes hand in hand with this. A week of eating more fruit and veg on holiday could be the kick start that helps some people to carry on with this after their suitcase has been stored away for another year; even if not, every little helps.

Photo by Marisa DeMeglio from NYC, USA via Wikimedia Commons

And You Thought 5 A Day Was a Lot...

The recent finding that those who eat more fruit and vegetables tend to have higher levels of optimism is yet another potential reason to add to the importance of eating your quota daily; that is as if you needed another. With their antioxidant content linked to a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer, their fibre promoting not just better digestive health but cholesterol reduction and a slower release of energy, on top of the many vitamins and minerals they contain; the latter is particularly important for those who avoid animal produce. However, despite all these potential health benefits and the £4million spent on the 5 A Day campaign to get us to eat more of the green stuff over the last decade, only a fifth of us manage to meet these recommendations. While we struggle to eat the golden 5, it’s just as well we don’t live elsewhere; the guidelines for daily consumption are at least double that in some other countries. In Canada, 5 portions is seen as the absolute minimum, with people urged to aim closer to 10 if they can; while in France, people are expected to definitely aim for 10 daily. However, the nation that really tops the charts in terms of the recommended fruit and vegetable portions is Japan; its citizens are expected to strive for a whopping 17 each day, made from a combination of 13 for vegetables and a further 4 as fruit. 

You might be wondering why the guidelines we are meant to follow for our consumption of greens are so low in comparison. While eating more than 5 portions brings further benefits – hence the higher suggested portions elsewhere  - it probably isn’t realistic to expect us Brits to eat anywhere near that much fruit and vegetables as in France and Japan. Traditionally we have never been a nation of great fruit and vegetable consumers, thanks in part to the fact that we are more limited by what will grow in our climate compared to say in the Mediterranean. However, the 5 portions daily is based on good evidence; the World Health Organisation recommends at least 400g daily, which is from the findings of studies showing a link with disease prevalence, nicely translating as 5 x 80g portions. 

Besides the difference in the number of recommended portions daily, our guidelines are not as prescriptive as elsewhere. While we are advised to limit fruit juice, dried fruit and pulses to one portion of each daily, that is largely where the fine detail ends. However, elsewhere there are guidelines on the proportion that should be fruit and vegetables – as in Japan – and even which types should be eaten in greater quantities; Greece is one of the countries that places a strong emphasis on the consumption of green leafy vegetables, as a high intake of these have been particularly linked to a reduced risk of cancer and heart disease. 

The news that we should be eating more shouldn’t come as a surprise though; after all attached to the 5 A Day slogan is the words “at least”. However, if you’re only eating 2 portions a day, begin to edge your way to 5 daily before you set your sights higher. As well as quantity, make sure you include a mix of both fruit and vegetables and 5 different varieties, as their nutritional benefits aren’t all the same. Additionally, where you are able to, eat vegetables raw, as cooking can deplete their micronutrient content, particularly for vitamin C and the B vitamins; when you do heat them, avoid boiling and instead steam, stir-fry or microwave to preserve their nutrient content. 

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