Written by Kate Bullen, APD
One question that I often get asked is about serve sizes. People are often interested in how much they should be serving up on their plates – and this is a really important area to understand, as I really think that portion control and large serve sizes (would you like to upsize that?) is one of the big reasons we have such an obesity problem.
This post is going to take a slightly different look at serve sizes, by talking about how many vegetables we should all eat as adults every day. If you are watching your weight then vegetables should be your friend. The majority of vegetables are very low in kilojoules, but are still a great source of fibre, and various nutrients.
Each day we should eat 5 serves of vegetables. Unfortunately most of us only eat half of that. Vegetables are important to help reduce our blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and can help prevent constipation, overweight and obesity, some cancers, and heart disease. I know I want to avoid all of the above!
So how much is a serve of vegetables? Great question! You can find more detail on what a serve of vegetables (and fruit) is here. But in summary, 1 serve of vegetables is:
= 75 g or ½ cup cooked vegetables
= 75 g or ½ cup cooked or canned
beans, lentils, chick peas or split
peas
= 1 cup salad vegetables
= 1 medium potato
= 75 g or ½ cup cooked or canned
beans, lentils, chick peas or split
peas
= 1 cup salad vegetables
= 1 medium potato
Remembering that the recommendation is to eat 5 serves of vegetables every day. And no – you cannot just eat 5 potatoes and say that is your 5 serves of vegetables! It is important to eat a variety of vegetables as they all provide varying nutrients that our bodies need.
As I was preparing dinner, I quickly took a photo of what 5 serves of vegetables might look like.
A serve of cooked vegetables (eg: pumpkin in the below photo) is half a cup.
And the peas are 2 serves of vegetables (1cup) :
The remaining raw vegetables are 1 serve per cup (mushroom and zucchini) – due to their water content, which is usually lost in cooking.
I usually find that you need to be eating vegetables at 2 meals/snacks to get your 5 serves in. Here are a few ideas on increasing your vegetable intake, some borrowed from here:
Breakfast
- Add cooked mushrooms, tomato and/or a tin of sweet corn to your toast
- Add vegetables to an omelette
Snacks
- Chop up some vegetable sticks the night before (carrot, celery, capsicum, cucumber, broccoli) and serve with some hummus or avocado
- Add grated carrot, sliced cucumber and tomato into a sandwich
- Add some diced vegetables on top of an English muff or crumpet with some grated cheese, pop under the grill and enjoy a quick mini pizza!
Main meals
- It is nearly soup weather! Add vegetables to soups.
- Try stir-fries where you can reduce the meat content and increase your vegetables
- Add steamed vegetables on your plate with your main meal
- Try roasted vegetables (pumpkin, sweet potato, parsnip, beetroot, zucchini) and serve with natural yoghurt, and your choice of meat.
How many serves of vegetables did you have today? I would love to hear your tips on increasing vegetable intake – please share!
4 comments:
Kate I think you've covered most of the tips already :)
We try and make several meals of our week substantial salads eg Traditional Salade Nicoise(lettuce, tomato, beans, potatoes along with egg and tuna). Even with the kids's allergies it's actually really easy to tailor each person's salad to suit.
Have a few portion sizes of veggie soup in my freezer for a filling snack any time.
Hi Karly - I like the sound of your substantial salads! And you have just reminded me about something I have been meaning to do - freeze some veggie soups - so thank you!
Cheers, Kate.
Hi Kate,
My partner and I love the CSIRO healthy heart and wellbeing books and found that their recipes have some great ideas on how to add vegetables where you wouldn't normally think to. My favourite is the lamb mince meatballs with chopped spinach, pine nuts, mint and red onion! I don't cook them any other way anymore :-)
Jenny
Thanks Jenny - you have reminded me that I have been meaning to look at the CSIRO books - so will put that on my to-do list! Cheers, Kate.
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