The idea that 10 items of fruit or veg a day will seriously improve your health is a bit intimidating (Five a day? Try 10 to live longer, say scientists, 23 February). I priced the array pictured with your article. In Sainsbury’s it came to around £2.16; in Lidl £1.88. These amounts don’t seem very big until you multiply by seven for a week (£15.12 and £13.16 respectively), and they start to look frightening. For a family of four, £60.48 and £52.64, respectively.
And buying them would be a logistical nightmare, since few of the items can be bought singly; they all come in different quantities, so you would run out of them at different intervals and probably have to shop several times a week. I wonder how a family on below average income is supposed to come by such large amounts of money, let alone the shopping time? The differences in health between rich and poor families begin to be more easily explained. (Incidentally, you’d have to be very careful about the orange juice since most varieties are loaded with sugar.)
Jeremy Cushing
Exeter
• Dr Jenny Goodman (Letters, 21 February) describes vitamin D2 as synthetic and far less useful than vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). She is right in that it is less useful to humans than D3, which is the animal form of the vitamin. D2 is present in some lichens, fungi and alfalfa. This means strict vegans would be unable to get D3 into their diet and must make do with D2. We do get most of our vitamin D from sunlight, but in the UK the winter sun is never high enough to provide this. If your shadow is longer than you are tall, you won’t be getting vitamin D.
Goodman mentions the effect of vitamin D on our immune system. Another nutrient we need for this is zinc, which has been found to shorten cold symptoms. Again, vegans and some vegetarians will struggle to get enough, especially if they avoid dairy products and wheat.
Brian Curwain
Christchurch, Dorset
• While I try and eat plenty of fruit most days, the intake proposed by the Imperial College study of 800g a day of fruit and vegetables is far beyond my capacity. It is roughly my total daily food input. And why no potatoes, and where are the proteins and fat we need – albeit in smaller quantities than most of us should eat? Please don’t tell me I have to eat another half a kilo of stuff; to eat that much food I’d be grazing like a rabbit. Isn’t a bit of kale and quinoa with my burger and chips enough?
David Reed
London
• There is a serious problem with Dr Goodman’s proposal that food should be fortified with vitamin D3 as opposed to D2. Most D3 is currently produced from animal sources (lanolin and fish oils), making it unsuitable for vegans and, in some cases, vegetarians too. At present, many foodstuffs simply state that they are fortified with “vitamin D”, with no indication as to whether this is animal-derived D3, non-animal derived D3 (which is much rarer and comes from lichen) or D2. This forces many vegans to err on the side of caution and avoid such products. If more foods are to be fortified with vitamin D3, I would urge manufacturers to switch to the plant-derived version and that this be clearly stated on the product packaging so that vegans may also benefit from it.
Ben Martin
Animal Aid
• I feel sorry for Tony Naylor (How the shops spoiled posh pizza, 22 February) if he thinks that “no one will ever improve on Heinz baked beans by cooking their own”. Of course it’s subjective, and children will usually go for those that are laden with sugar and salt. But having cooked my own baked beans for years, the industrial varieties taste horrid to us – mushy and sweet.
It reminds me of the story about my hero Jane Grigson who, when Elizabeth David suggested she gave her daughter baked beans for tea, replied: “But they take so long to make.” (Even if it’s not true, it ought to be). I’m with Jane. I like to include molasses for sweetness, mustard rather than salt, and onions. Tony Naylor is welcome to try mine any time.
Jill Bennett
St Albans
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Families will pay high price for more fruit and veg to improve health | Letters
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