5 a day myth page

[huntingBears]

5 a day is clearly CW at work, it's a governmentally introduced rule of thumb used by the nutritionally lazy who think a glass of orange juice with their sugary cereal and milk in the morning will save them from the perils of a sedentary lifestyle.

A recent article from the daily mail points out some interesting things that many of the CW crowd will disagree with and essentially argues things from the perspective of this forum, so is CW catching up?

'Vegetables can be OK for iron and calcium but the vitamins and minerals in animal foods (meat, fish, eggs and dairy products) beat those in fruit and vegetables hands down. There is far more vitamin A in liver than in an apple, for instance.'

'Vegetables offer some vitamins, but your body will be able to absorb these only if you add some fat, such as butter or olive oil'

'fruit and veg offer no protection against breast, prostate, bowel, lung or any other kind of tumour. Those eating the most fruit and veg showed no difference in cancer risk compared with those *eating the least.'

'fruit has a fraction of the antioxidants of coffee, though you rarely hear dieticians singing *coffee’s praises.'

So are the CW crowd catching on???

Not according to the slew of comments beneath that conclude 'It is well documented that whenever a culture begins to eat a westernized diet heavy in animal products, their rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and a host of other illnesses rise'
'Fibre keeps the GI tract moving properly. Prevents constipation'
'And the 'animal' foods that have retinol seem to be fish and dairy, if you don't want to load up on calories.'

I've disregarded the 5 a day rule, i only get about 3 different fruit and veg a day, and according to fitday i have ample amounts of most vits and minerals, the others like vitamin d im supplementing and getting sunlight

[@lex]

Not according to the slew of comments beneath that conclude 'It is well documented that whenever a culture begins to eat a westernized diet heavy in animal products, their rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and a host of other illnesses rise'

Yes, because indigenous cultures were staunch vegetarians before the influence of the evil west right? Fucking nonsense.

I don't disagree that a western diet is the problem, but to blame animal products in general as the cause is just stupid. When will people realize it's not the food but the fucked up things we do to the food and the slew of shit we put into it that's making people unhealthy.

Grass fed steak =/= processed pink slime

[Sunnivara]

"There is far more vitamin A in liver than in an apple, for instance."

Pretty weak argument. I could just as easily argue in favor of vegetables by saying, "There is far more vitamin A in carrots than in chicken." It's a silly comparison.

[huntingBears]

did you read the whole article? pretty hard to say its a weak argument from that one little bit

[Dirlot]

Keep in mind people in the UK even fail to reach the 5 a day a deliberately low set standard. Even then most people think 5 pieces of fruit are OK when the actual guidlines say most of the 5 a day should be from veg. Grains are still to be eaten in higher quantities.
What bothers me about the article if the focus on the 5 a day rather than the high amount of recommended grains.
In Canada the recommendation is for 7-10 portions of fruit and veg, more than grains but still the grains are too high IMHO.

[huntingBears]

yea its a shame she references oatmeal as a good source of vitamins but generally the article is pretty good
im not surprised 5 a day was the most the UK government thought people would go for, in france i think it's 7 or 8 like you say it is in canada and in japan i think it's 10
but the point stands that fruit and veg arent necessarily the best sources of vitamins and antioxidants, i eat 2 cups of sprouts, 2 cups of spinach and a handful of berries among the meat eggs and prawns i eat and im well above the rda in most areas, but rda is also a government measurement surely? so who knows for sure, i think how well you feel and look is a much better indicator of health than how many fruit and veg you're eating a day