Should we raise our five-a-day?

By Melanie Leyshon

If it’s not a rude question to ask, how much did you get yesterday? Two bowls of carrot soup, a rice veg pot and seven strawberries meant I just about scraped my five-a-day. And I’m not alone – only a quarter of the UK population meets the five-a-day target, so the call to increase this to seven-a-day and potentially double it to a massive 10 daily servings might seem a fruit and veg step too far.

And before we feel inferior to those from countries eating seven or eight portions a day, it’s good to know that all nations work to the same World Health Organization recommendation of 400g fruit and veg daily – it’s how the governments convey that message that is different. The Swedish mantra of eat fruit and vegetables every time you eat is a good one, while Australians have their 5:2 mantra of five veg and two fruit a day fixed in their brains.

The positive take on the 10-a-day headlines is that five-a-day is back in the news. Eating fruit and veg does help prevent obesity, cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and the new research by Health Survey for England, based on a survey of 65,000 people, is compelling about the risk of death and the amount of fruit and veg we eat. Out of the 4,300 people from this group who died during the eight-year survey follow-up, those who ate the least amount of fruit had the highest risk of death. Quite enough evidence to get us reaching for the fruit bowl and adding more vegetables to every meal – but don’t overdo the fruit juice or canned fruit in syrup. 

UK health experts have broken the 400g figure into five separate servings, each weighing 80g. If fruit is dried, a serving weighs 30g (the equivalent of 80g fresh fruit), while a serving of pure fruit or veg juice is 150ml (one small glass). Here’s what counts as one serving…

Fresh fruit

An 80g portion of fresh fruit is:

½ grapefruit

½ avocado

1 apple, orange, banana, pear, nectarine, mandarin or tomato

1 slice (5cm) of melon or mango

1 pineapple ring

1 handful of grapes

1 heaped tbsp tomato purée

2 plums, fresh figs, kiwi fruits, satsumas, clementines or tangerines

2 handfuls of raspberries or blueberries

3 apricots

3 heaped tbsp fruit salad

6 passion fruits

7 strawberries or cherry tomatoes

10 blackberries

14 cherries

a 30g portion of dried fruit is:

1 heaped tbsp raisins, sultanas, currants or cranberries

1 handful of banana chips

2 figs

3 prunes or apricots

4 apple rings

4 pieces of sundried tomato

an 80g portion of tinned fruit is:

(choose fruit in natural juices and not syrup)

2 pear halves

2 peach halves

2 pineapple rings

6 apricot halves

6 prunes

8 grapefruit segments

12 pineapple chunks

AN 80g portion of veg is:

¼ small cabbage
⅓ aubergine

½ large courgette

½ pepper

1 leek

1 medium onion

1 large parsnip

1 large sweet potato

1 corn-on-the-cob

1 cereal bowl of lettuce, spinach leaves or watercress

1 handful of mangetout or sugar snap peas

1 piece (5cm) of cucumber

2 heaped tbsp spinach

2 handfuls of beansprouts

2 broccoli florets

3 celery sticks

3 heaped tbsp pulses, peas, sweetcorn, chopped carrots, butternut squash or cabbage

3 baby beetroots

4 heaped tbsp spring greens, green beans, French beans or kale

4 large mushrooms

5 asparagus spears

6 baby corn

8 cauliflower florets

8 Brussels sprouts

8 spring onions

10 radishes

14 button mushrooms

For more information on portion sizes, download the September 2013 issue of Healthy Food Guide from iTunes

How to cut your risk of type 2 diabetes

By Tracy Kelly, Diabetes UK

Diabetes levels are soaring with no signs of slowing down.

New figures just released by Diabetes UK show that the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK has increased to more than 3.2 million. This is the biggest increase in a single year since 2008, with 163,000 more cases in 2013 than there were in 2012.

These figures demonstrate that the sharp rise of new cases over the last decade shows no signs of slowing down. Even more worrying is that if we continue on this trajectory it is predicted there will be 5 million people affected by diabetes in the UK by 2025.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for most of the increase and one of the main reasons for this is the high obesity rate. Being overweight is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes, while other factors include genetics, age and ethnicity. We need more people to be aware of diabetes, more people to know their risk of developing type 2 diabetes and more people being supported to reduce their risk of developing it.

The big increase in the number of people with diabetes confirms that we are in the middle of an unfolding public health disaster  and  it is frightening to think that one in 17 people you walk past in the street has been diagnosed with the condition. This doesn’t include the 630,000 who have diabetes but don’t yet know it. The time to act is now! 

Apart from campaigning for better public awareness, better prevention programmes for type 2 diabetes and better care for everyone with diabetes, we need to address the obesity crisis by making healthy food cheaper and more accessible and by making it easier for people to build physical activity into their daily lives.

We’d really encourage Healthy Food Guide readers to find out more about diabetes by visiting www.diabetes.org.uk. You can also find out your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by taking a quick online risk assessment (www.diabetes.org.uk/risk) or discussing your concerns with your nurse or doctor.  Taking action now could help you to significantly reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

How to cook a healthy Valentine’s supper

By Melanie Leyshon

HFG crème brûlée: pure indulgence for under 200kcal 

One Valentine’s Day, before joining Healthy Food Guide, I was planning a night-in for two. I spent an age on recipe sites, trying to find three perfect courses – not too everyday, not too indulgent. There’s nothing seductive about a pudding that delivers 900 calories in one go or a meal that makes you feel so stuffed that you want to go to bed early… to sleep it off.

I couldn’t find any planned menus I liked, so chose three recipes that came in under 1,000 calories – a simple smoked salmon pâté to start, a fantastic seared steak with rocket (tagliata) and an extravagant, but not too OTT, chocolate pud (thanks to Healthy Food Guidemagazine’s indulgent cookery cousin, http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk).

This year, as editor of Healthy Food Guide, I thought I’d do myself (and those of you who are also staying in à deux) a favour by asking our recipe consultant Phil Mundy to plan a healthier Valentine’s supper. The brief: the menu needed to be satisfyingly sexy but still under 700 calories.

Phil chose a French bistro-style meal that has 673 calories all-in: a prawn salad with mango and chilli, steak and chips with a homemade tomato chutney and a prepare-ahead crème brulée.

Our friends at the Express newspaper came over to the HFG test kitchen to film Phil cooking all three recipes. Even the paper’s man-size cameraman found them filling as well as tasty.

Sit back and watch Phil whiz up the menu at http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/food/454999/How-to-cook-a-healthy-three-course-Valentine-s-Day-dinner-for-two. He also shares his brilliant cookery tips and nutrition advice.

For more recipe clips, see Phil cook our three favourite Healthy Food Guide mood-boosting recipes at: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/food/455028/beat-the-january-blues-with-three-easy-mood-boosting-recipes.

Could chocolate and wine save us from type 2 diabetes?

By Tracy Kelly, Diabetes UK clinical adviser

According to research just published, eating high levels of flavonoids is linked to a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Flavonoids aren’t only found in healthy food such as berries, apples and pears, but also in wine and chocolate – so can it possibly be true?

The study does seem to show an association between flavonoids and lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Almost 2,000 women completed a food questionnaire designed to estimate total dietary flavonoid intake, then their blood samples were analysed for evidence of both glucose regulation and inflammation and were used to give an indication of insulin resistance. The researchers found that those who consumed plenty of anthocyanins and flavones (two specific types of flavonoids) had lower insulin resistance and were also less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

But we need to interpret the findings with caution. For one thing, there have been contradictory findings from other studies. For another, even if high flavonoid consumption and lower type 2 diabetes risk do tend to happen together, it doesn’t necessarily mean one is causing the other.

So what should people be doing to reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes? Diabetes UK already recommends a healthy lifestyle that involves doing regular physical activity and eating a healthy diet to help maintain a healthy weight. This includes eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, many of which are rich in flavonoids. But we don’t advise going mad for red wine and chocolate, which also contain them.

Our advice is to limit your consumption of these – and that’s unlikely to change, even if further research does demonstrate that flavonoids reduce type 2 diabetes risk. That’s because any health benefit from the flavonoids would be dramatically outweighed by the calories in the chocolate and the alcohol in the wine!

So although this is interesting research, the findings don’t alter our recommendations for lowering your risk: eat a healthy, balanced diet and get plenty of physical activity.