It seems like just days ago that we were talking about the surprising knock-on effects of really concentrating your efforts into eating plenty of fruit and veg. It’s a great way to make healthy eating incredibly simple. The idea prompted a lot of discussion and also this question on Twitter – does it matter if your five a day includes just fruit or just vegetables?
Most of the research that backs our eat 5-a-day campaign here in the UK is based on the rationale that eating at least 400 g of fruit and veg every day (five portions of about 80g each) helps reduce the risk of developing a whole host of chronic diseases. The guidelines are not so prescriptive about what this should include, suggesting just that we aim for a variety across the day. Some countries are more structured about this, for example in Australia the advice is to have 2 portions of fruit, 5 of vegetables. While it’s true that fruits and vegetables have slightly different nutritional properties (this Nutrition Facts on Fruits and Vegetables article is a good primer), with most of us not meeting our five-a-day it seems churlish to get critical about not having the correct ratio of fruit to veg. That said, I have noticed some trends among those eaters I’ve met who eat only fruit or only vegetables and it seems that limiting your choices in this way can have an unwanted effect on the rest of your days eating. Here are a few habits to look out for:
Unhealthy habits to watch out for if you eat vegetables but no fruit
I’ve spoken to many people who absolutely love their vegetables, regularly eating 3 portions with their main meals, and yet they don’t like fruit. What I’ve noticed is that people who don’t eat fruit tend to struggle with their snacks, either having a limited choice of energy dense options or skipping snacks completely. Snacking isn’t compulsory but it’s a useful strategy for avoiding overeating and ensuring that your body gets everything that it needs.
If this sounds like you, think about:
- Experimenting to find a few fruits that you can grow to love, starting with dried or cooked fruit if this helps
- Including some snacks that are vegetable-based such as fresh crudités with houmous or salsa
- Eating a rainbow and carrying on enjoying those veggies!
Unhelpful habits to watch out for if you eat fruit but no vegetables
Some people aren’t keen on vegetables at all but will happily munch on juicy, fresh fruit all day. Healthy snacks aren’t a problem for these folk. What can go astray is the proportions of their main meals. A well-balanced meal is around one-third to half of the plate filled with vegetables or salad with the remainder divided between protein and carbohydrate. This can become really distorted if you don’t have any vegetables taking up space on your plate.
It’s true that fruit also contains more calories per portion than vegetables but for most people increasing your fruit intake will still help to avoid, not cause weight gain. The calories in fruit might become worth worrying about only if your portion sizes are very large or if you eat a lot of energy dense fruit options such as dried fruit or juices.
If this sounds like you, think about:
- experimenting with recipes and cooking methods until you find some vegetables that you enjoy. Think outside the box – soups, salads, beans and pulses all count, as do veggies incorporated into stews, ragus and curries.
- Making sure that your main meals aren’t out of proportion
- Keeping an eye on your fruit portion sizes for more energy dense fruit options such as fruit juice, smoothies and dried fruit
- Eating a rainbow and carrying on enjoying your fruit!
The bottom line is that if you manage five portions of fruit every day but no vegetables (or vice versa), you’re still way ahead of most people. These ideas are refinements that you might want to consider – most important is that you enjoy what you are eating.
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Sophie Roberts is a registered dietitian based in Oxford, UK. She loves combining her nutrition know-how with a sustainable approach to buying and preparing food and shares her tips and recipes here at Mostly Eating. 
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Great post Sophie and you’re exactly right about the problem gaps that occur when you don’t eat fruit or vegies. I have to admit I’m more hardcore and bossy about the vegies, although I’m *highly* sympathetic to your point about it being churlish to be critical when so few people even get close to having enough. Latest figures are 60+% here in Australia that are not eating their fruit and vegie serves.
Other interesting thing, that I hadn’t really thought about is the 2&5 campaign means our basic recommendation means at least 675g of fruit and veg per day (it’s based round a 75g serve of both: http://www.gofor2and5.com.au/article.aspx?c=1&a=5). Which is quite a bit more than the UK.
What a fascinating question and post, Sophie. I confess I’ve always thought vegetables had the edge in terms of nutrient density but I need to be careful about assumptions. Perhaps a fairly even balance is optimal. Coincidentally, today I received Nutrition Action Healthletter’s “Healthy Foods” guide. Guava, watermelon & grapefruit are “gold medalist” fruits; kale, spinach and collard greens are the top three vegetable “superstars”.
Also, it’s so interesting to compare national food guides. Canada’s Food Guide recommends adults, depending on age and gender, eat 7 to 10 servings per day and “at least one dark green and one orange vegetable each day.” A serving is a medium fruit or half a cup of fresh, frozen or canned vegetables – except for greens, which are 1 cup.
I stumbled across this article today – I can’t recall if you mentioned it on Twitter:
Fruit and vegetable intake and mortality from ischaemic heart disease: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Heart study.
Hello. Me again.
I see I forgot to include the link to the study. Here it is: http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/01/17/eurheartj.ehq465.abstract . Unfortunately you have to be a subscriber to read the full article.
Also, beautiful photo to complement your excellent suggestions.
Reading Elaine’s response has reminded me about another layer to the Australian veg serves. The actual specific vegetable serving recommendation by the NHMRC (National Health & Medical Research Council) is for 4 – 8 vegetable serves per day, depending on differing nutritional needs. So if you’re a man doing lots of exercise you need more than the talked about five.
Interesting also that in Canada they make a recommendation on the types of vegetable eaten as well.
Hi Kathryn, I had a feeling that the Australian recommendation was for quite a bit more than the UK rec in terms of weight. It’s so interesting to compare – your veggie servings are 75g (virtually the same as ours at 80g each), but while you only have 2 portions of fruit recommended, they are for 150g each (so more like 4 of our serves). The UK recommendations are cautious in every way – the 500g target was set not as the ideal but more as an interim goal for a veg shy nation. Which probably also explains why they haven’t added any additional guidance as to how much should be fruit and how much veg.
And isn’t that interesting about needing more servings if you are more active? This fits right in with what I can remember from my sports nutrition studies – if you are more active you need more anti-oxidants but you most likely also take more in because you eat more. Makes sense.
Elaine – yes, I’ve always thought veggies are in some ways superior but the two groups are so diverse it’s probably hard to have a definitive answer. Maybe veggies do have the edge – fruit definitely has more calories in it and I can’t think of a fruit that can take the place of dark green leafy veg. Though I can’t think of a vegetable I’d like to have on my yogurt in the morning either :-)
And thanks for the heart journal link – I will see if I can access the article from work.
I didn’t realise that my question had spawned a post. Fame at last!
I was curious about the merits of fruit as opposed to veggies mainly due to their higher calorie content and also most people I know tend to get their ‘5 a day’ from fruit rather than veg. At the moment I’m following your advice and trying to eat a rainbow, but I do tend to limit fruit and eat colourful veggies instead. Part of my problem is that I am a total berry person and imported winter berries are dismal (plus you have the out of season/local guilt) but frozen fruit is v.goodd in a pinch. Incidentally, have the UK guidelines about fruit juices changed? I saw that Innocent smothies are now advertising themselves as containing TWO of our ‘5 a day’.
Oh! While I wouldn’t put pumpkin on my yoghurt in the morning, I do make a very decadent but super-healthy pumpkin porridge :)
I feel like I lean towards fruit or vegetables based on the time of year. In the summer time I want pineapple, mango, blueberries, watermelon and strawberries but come winter I want carrots, potatoes, corn, broccoli and peas! Now if only I could get both my fruit and veggie fill in a single day!
Fruit is just so much easier to snack on, and so much tastier! Bananas are the perfect afternoon snack. I’m trying to defend my fruit habit, don’t get me wrong I do have a portion of veg with my main meal every night, but I thought I was being healthy with all this fruit!
I love veggies much than fruits. I don’t know why but I just love to have tropical fruits, with their certain aroma and taste, they just taste so good to me. I do buy fruits, but you can bet they store in the fridge longer than anyone may do. I bought fruits two weeks ago; a kilo of apple, a kilo of mangosteen, and a kilo of guava, and a kilo of orange. I turn all guavas into a juice, which I love so much. I could finish drinking all the juice in 2 days only. Mangosteen gone second after guava. I have some apples and oranges in the fridge still. I have no idea how good it is. During these two weeks, there were days fruits off.
Thank you for this article! I feel much less guilty about my fruit to veggie ratio!
Another thing to consider, a lot of healthy fruits get tossed in the veggie circle by many people, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, bell peppers. I was talking to a chef once and he explained that he was taught in cooking school that the culinary definition of a vegetable is different from the scientific definition. In the culinary world, sweet=fruit, savory=vegetable. This stacks the deck against fruits healthwise by placing the least sweet (and by definition least calorie dense) fruits in the veggie column.
Fruit lovers should stick to the botanical classifications and reclaim our healthy friends.
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