Fruit and Veg Intake for Micro-nutrition

Fruits and vegetables are essential for proper growth and bodily functions. A lack of can cause significant negative health effects.

There are numerous ways of measuring fruit and veg intake. Fruits and veggies have varying nutritional density. For example broccoli is more nutritionally dense than grapes. Two spears of broccoli equals to a handful of grapes if your measuring servings. However half a cup of broccoli is about 5 spears and depending on where you look that could be one serving or two and a half servings. And we haven’t even mentioned the size of the broccoli spears!

To prevent this section from becoming incredibly long winded and complicated just remember the following:

• This is not an exact science and thus
• Air on the side of more is better as this will nearly always be the case.

An absolute minimum of 5 servings a day or 400g of fruit and veg (excluding potatoes and other starchy tubers) is recommended. If you are reading this I am assuming that you are an adult, and you no longer need to be told to eat your vegetables.

What counts as a serving (approximately)

One serving of vegetables:

• 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables (about the size of a small fist),
• 1/2 cup of other vegetables
• 1/2 cup of pure vegetable juice

One serving of fruit:

• 1 medium fruit (about the size of a sliotar or baseball)
• 2 small fruits
• 1/2 cup chopped fruit
• 1/2 cup pure fruit juice

If you want know the serving size for specific fruits and veggies check out this website: http://www.whats5aday.co.uk/. One cup is approximately the size of your fist, if you have an average sized fist.

Fruits and vegetable needs are dictated by calories. Someone with a higher level of maintenance calories needs more micronutrients to maintain and optimize bodily functions. If you are training very hard outdoors during winter months you are stressing your bodies’ immune system significantly more than light training in summer months. Thus you will need more micronutrients to reduce your risk of infection. Fruits and vegetables will be your main source of fiber. With a higher calorie diet you will need more fiber.

Aim for a variety of fruits and vegetables. Eat all the colours of the rainbow and emphasize dark greens. This will give you an even spread of micronutrients.

Vegies or Fruits?

Should you eat more vegetables or fruits? The ratio of fruits to vegetables can depend on your calorie goals. If you have higher calorie goals you may want to eat more fruit, as it has more calories and less fiber than veg. On the flip side if you want to reduce your calories eat more veggies as they are less calorie dense and have more fiber with will increase satiety (feeling of fullness).

Fat loss = more veg

Muscle gain = more fruit

Deficiencies and Supplementing Micronutrients

Diets that have you avoid large food groups can put you at risk of micronutrient deficits.

Different micronutrient deficiencies have different presentations. A multivitamin is not a substitute for fruit and vegetables. However they are neither healthy nor dangerous. They do not improve performance, or anything else of significance.

The only time you should consider a multivitamin is if you are at risk of nutrient deficiencies due to a medical condition, a dietary limitation (like EOS) or a life circumstance.

The elderly, athletes, people on lower calories and low income people are at most risk.

Athletes stress their bodies more the harder they train. When you are in a calorie deficit you reduce your overall food intake, this leaves you at a greater risk of micronutrient deficiencies.

Others (college students) simply can’t afford a variety of fruit and veg.

In either case, begin a multivitamin of adequate dosage to cover the deficiency risk and source fruit and veg ASAP. Do not super compensate with extremely high dosages.

More on supplementing vitamins and dietary elements later.