Government guidelines have, for some years, held that eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is what we should all be aiming for. That’s an achievable target for many, if not most, of us. Some days it might be felt in the purse, to make sure there’s broccoli on a plate, but generally it’s possible to eat five different fruits and vegetables a day even on a strict budget.
Ten, though? When I first read that the guidelines could change, and we should be aiming for 10 portions of fruit and veg a day, I nodded and thought: “Huh, makes sense.” But as I thought about it, while raiding my freezer for a bag of frozen carrots, I realised it was going to be another thing – like buying free range organic, or only buying ethically sound clothing – that will only serve to make the poor feel guilty, again less than good enough.
Most days my family consumes five a day with ease. The veg is in my budget, and there’s always a bag of bananas or satsumas around. I buy frozen vegetables and fresh fruit, and they get vacuumed up by the family as fast as I can serve them. To serve and supply double this, though? When vegetables are sold in 900g bags for the most part, and each member of the family should be having 10 portions a day at 80g a portion – they can’t be the same fruit or vegetable –then for families already struggling, this extra recommendation seems impossible.
Already millions are feeling the pinch of extended austerity. Finding a fiver for the electric meter, or making sure there’s food on the table at all, is a common battle across the country. It’s not unusual for thousands of children to go to school hungry, having not eaten breakfast because the cupboards were bare at home.
Food banks are having a hard time keeping up with the families who, after paying their rent, have no money left for groceries. People who have no real cooking facilities, often relying on a “worktop oven” or a microwave to see them through, will have good reason to roll their eyes and ignore this advice. For some, it’s not even worth aiming for. It’s impossible to afford it, let alone cook it.
When there is so much disparity in income in this country, and when so many are fighting to live from payday to payday, as Sure Start centres fade into memory, taking food education and their healthy eating plans with them, and school dinners rise in cost, it seems shortsighted to interfere more in what people are putting on their plates. Maybe a little bit cruel. Just adding half a frozen bag of greens to a meal for four people will cost an extra 50p. And that’s just one portion of veg at dinner.
To eat 10 portions a day, there needs to be three or four on a dinner plate if the target is going to be achievable – an extra £2 for one meal, or £14 a week for an evening meal with four portions of cheap frozen veggies each night. Add in a banana during the day, some fruit for breakfast, a snack of beans on toast, an apple before dinner, and then something else for supper? The food bill has got out of control, and the guilt sets in, much as it does when I’m left with no option but to buy cheap clothes I know have been made in a sweatshop overseas.
In an ideal world I would be dressing in Fairtrade cottons and eating produce from my local farmer’s market. In reality, a handful of sprouts and some green beans from the freezer accompany a meal, and my clothes are from the cheapest stores on the high street. In an ideal world, I would make my children smoothies every day for breakfast. I would source only the finest ingredients. I would only buy free range organic produce. I would eat 10 portions of fruit and veg a day.
This, though, isn’t an ideal world. This is Britain, hit by the effects of rising rents and an austerity budget. Many councils are set to raise taxes by 5% this year, adding another £100 at least to my bill for 2017. Tax credits, working benefits, housing benefits and every other benefit that isn’t an old age pension have been frozen for three years. Wages aren’t increasing to match the cost of living. Energy costs are going through the roof. In Britain today, an iceberg lettuce costs 75p, and I can promise you that a portion of lettuce won’t fill a stomach for long.
Ten a day? Maybe not.
A veg (or five) too far: why 10 portions a day is way too much to ask | Kathleen Kerridge
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