The Real Magic Number For Daily Fruit/Veg

What’s the magic number when it comes to daily fruit/veg? Is it the famous 5-a-day? Is it 7, as championed in Japan? More?

In fact, the most important number is…

Drumroll please…

One.

Specifically, “one additional fruit/veg per day”.

More specifically: setting a goal of “one additional fruit/veg per day” resulted (when put to the test in studies) in a greater overall consumption of fruit and vegetables, than goals that seemed larger, such as “5 per day”.

The studies

Researchers Dr. Katherine Appleton and Dr. Zara Borgonha did a series of studies, and discovered the following:

• Study 1 found a “sweet spot”—moderate effort led to the biggest gains in intake of fruits and vegetables; extreme effort was less effective.
• Study 2 showed greater improvements with “Eat 1 more…” goals compared to “Eat this many” goals.
• Study 3 found that goal-promoting posters increased fruit and vegetable sales in university cafeterias by about 10%, but the effect was short-lived and unaffected by achievability or relevance.

So, for our purposes here at 10almonds, the first two studies are of the most relevance, unless you want to put up a goal-promoting poster on your fridge and enjoy a short-lived boost to fruit and veg purchases in your shopping.

You can read about the studies themselves, here:”

“Eat Five A Day” vs “Eat One More”: Increased fruit and vegetable consumption when goals are provided, and when goals are more achievable or perceived to be easier

That “or perceived to be easier” is interesting, too, because in fact, eating 5 fruit/veg per day is really not a lot. If you’re vegan, that’s probably covered by breakfast. For others, hopefully it’s covered by the end of lunchtime. But really, if you are at all health conscious and do not have a conflicting chronic health condition that makes eating fruit and veg more troublesome (such as IBS, which is generally predicted by a diet low in fiber, considered to be a risk factor for developing it, later makes consuming a lot of fiber-rich foods more of a challenge), then for most people, eating a meagre 5 fruit/veg per day is not a lot.

And yet, if you hadn’t been counting (like many of the students who were participants in the study), it’d probably seem like you have to go out of your way to get them, and count them up over the course of the day.

In contrast, “just one more”? Well, that’s just one more. That’s easy, that’s “I added a handful of dried fruit to my breakfast”.

And of course, the best thing about “one more” is that it will continue to be “one more”, and unlike “5 a day” which will rapidly max out at the humble total of five, “one more” will continue to include one more fruit/veg until one is eating a deliciously varied diet of many plants.

Some other magic numbers you should know

While we’re talking fruit and veg and magic numbers…

The recommended amount of fiber per day is 25–40g, depending on advisory body (different organizations give different numbers), and yet, the average American gets only 16g per day.

So: Level-Up Your Fiber Intake! (Without Difficulty Or Discomfort)

Further, it is recommended (as a result of a truly huge study into gut health) to consume 30 different kinds of plants per week.

That might sound like a lot, but it’s very achievable; check out this book we reviewed previously:

How to Eat 30 Plants a Week – by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Enjoy!