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By Shulamit Wieder
The 5 A Day message has been promoted for a number of years now and yet, a recent poll of 1000 parents across England shows that many are still unsure as to how to eat their 5 A Day.
The survey, carried out by the research company Tickbox this year for the Department of Health’s 5 A Day campaign, identified the key areas which need to be focused on to effect an increase in fruit and vegetable intakes in families.
The success of 5 A Day initiatives in schools mean that children, according to one third of parents, are more clued up than they themselves are when it comes to 5 A Day and nutrition. Although this is important as children can influence food at home, half of children have used their parents lack of knowledge to get out of eating their 5 A Day. A key concern for some parents is the monetary cost that they associate with 5 A Day. This concern may be addressed as their understanding of what can contribute towards 5 A Day
5 A Day Guidelines (www.5aday.nhs.uk)
What counts: Fruit and vegetables as fresh, frozen, chilled, canned or dried, (cooked or raw), 100% juice and smoothies.
What doesn’t count: Dietary supplements and starchy vegetables like potatoes and yams.
How much: Five portions a day (one portion is about 80 grams).
becomes clearer.
What the survey showed
Half of parents don’t realise that fruit or vegetables in home made food count; over a third think that a baked potato is one portion and less than half of parents understand that a portion can come from canned foods as well as from fresh and frozen. (91% know that fresh and 82.3% that frozen fruit and vegetables count towards the 5 A Day). Just 70% know that dried fruit count.
One in five parents don’t have time to make homemade food – and don’t realise that they can provide the 5 A Day from convenience foods (although they should be cautious as to what else convenience foods provide such as high levels of fat, salt and sugar). Only four percent of parents didn’t know that supplements don’t count towards the 5 A Day target.
Going forward the findings indicate that health care professionals need to address the following misconceptions amongst parents in order to ensure that they feel that 5 A Day is an achievable goal;
- Food preparation – parents did not understand that cooked foods, whether home cooked or convenience foods, containing fruit and vegetables count towards 5 A Day – with it even possible for one dish to count towards more than one portion. 75% of parents thought that mixing fruit with ice cream for example, excluded the fruit from one of the 5 A Day.
- There is still a lot of uncertainty around starchy vegetables like potatoes and yams. The majority of parents mistakenly think that they can count towards 5 A Day if baked although not if fried.
- Canned products also bewilder parents with 3 in 10 not realising that for example, canned tomatoes count towards 5 A Day, despite them knowing that fresh tomatoes do.
- Parents are not confident as to how much makes up a portion. One portion of cucumber is a 10cm section, yet 1 in 2 children have managed to convince their parents that two slices of cucumber is equivalent to two portions of the 5 A Day.
Reference:
Tickbox, June 2008
Further information: