10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day

[Torsten]

Hi Jordan,
I have some questions concerning your recommendation to get 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

a) How do you roughly define a serving, maybe something like a palm of a hand?
b) I often eat a whole plate full of one vegetable during one meal, does that already count as several servings even though it is only one kind of vegetable?
c) Does lettuce also count?

Thanks in advance!

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Torsten,

1) Each vegetable and fruit has their own serving size that is searchable on a number of nutrition databases. Most veggies are ~85-115g per serving, for example.
2) It would count as multiple servings, yes.
3) Yes.

-Jordan

[Nikolaj]

Maybe, it's not related to the topic, but I will dare enough to ask it. Is it normal, that in order for me to be at the same weight class(170cm - 75kg) I eat 600c, 50f, 160p. Before I caught a stomach flue I was gaining weight and ate roughly the same. I was 76-77kg. My question is: is it normal that I consuming 600g of carbs on my training days(280g of carbs from liquid calories, like juice 2l, trying to fill the rest with rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, cereal. Talking about fats; 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil or avocado. Chicken or beef for meat, maybe whey if I don't have time.
And another question: should I cut my carbs down(maybe there will be an amount lower than 600 in order for me to maintain weight, although it isn't a problem to eat that much food).
Btw, on my non-training days, I consume 180-200g of protein, not many carbs(up to 250-300) and 50 fats.
What are your thoughts? I base my diet around: RP diet 2.0 and Helm's books. Maybe I misinterpreted something if so I want to see my mistakes.

[ShemTealeaf]

Do you have any suggestions for a good database where we can find serving sizes? I mostly use the USDA database, which seems to default to a 100g serving for pretty much everything.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Do you have any suggestions for a good database where we can find serving sizes? I mostly use the USDA database, which seems to default to a 100g serving for pretty much everything.

MyFitnessPal is pretty good.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Maybe, it's not related to the topic, but I will dare enough to ask it. Is it normal, that in order for me to be at the same weight class(170cm - 75kg) I eat 600c, 50f, 160p. Before I caught a stomach flue I was gaining weight and ate roughly the same. I was 76-77kg. My question is: is it normal that I consuming 600g of carbs on my training days(280g of carbs from liquid calories, like juice 2l, trying to fill the rest with rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, cereal. Talking about fats; 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil or avocado. Chicken or beef for meat, maybe whey if I don't have time.

It's not abnormal. Your calories are only at ~3100 or so (I didn't calculate them exactly), which isn't very high. That said, it's unlikely you're eating this daily.

And another question: should I cut my carbs down(maybe there will be an amount lower than 600 in order for me to maintain weight, although it isn't a problem to eat that much food).

I probably wouldn't reduce calorie intake if you're trying to gain weight.

Btw, on my non-training days, I consume 180-200g of protein, not many carbs(up to 250-300) and 50 fats.

I probably wouldn't eat less on off days if you're trying to gain weight.

[ShemTealeaf]

MyFitnessPal is pretty good.

Just doing a quick overview of some of my more commonly eaten fruits and vegetables, the serving size is invariably either 1 cup (blueberries, raspberries, cherries, strawberries, kale, broccoli, carrots, spinach) or 1 item (apple, peach, banana, sweet potato, red pepper), at least based on the top search result. Is it fair to say that one item of a large fruit/vegetable or one cup of small fruits/vegetables constitutes a serving, or is MyFitnessPal just using those serving sizes for ease of calculation?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Just doing a quick overview of some of my more commonly eaten fruits and vegetables, the serving size is invariably either 1 cup (blueberries, raspberries, cherries, strawberries, kale, broccoli, carrots, spinach) or 1 item (apple, peach, banana, sweet potato, red pepper), at least based on the top search result. Is it fair to say that one item of a large fruit/vegetable or one cup of small fruits/vegetables constitutes a serving, or is MyFitnessPal just using those serving sizes for ease of calculation?

That's not what I see on my app, but we may have different versions. 85g is the typical serving size for vegetables (in grams) and 110-150g for fruits depending on the fruit. If you want to use measuring cups, that's cool and 1 cup would be 1 serving, yes.

[ShemTealeaf]

That's not what I see on my app, but we may have different versions. 85g is the typical serving size for vegetables (in grams) and 110-150g for fruits depending on the fruit. If you want to use measuring cups, that's cool and 1 cup would be 1 serving, yes.

I was using the site rather than the app, which could be the source of the discrepancy. I think the typical serving sizes are good enough for my purposes, so I'll go with those. Thanks!

[Leah Lutz]

I think this is a very important realization! This is close, the goal is increased intake, and micro-managing the exact grams in serving isn't needed, outside of meeting your overall calorie goals.

[Bolson32]

10 cups of fruits and vegetables sounds incredibly daunting. I have to ask, is this more of a do as I say, not as I do, or do you get that much of the good stuff every day?

[jimmy02]

85g~ is generally 1/2 cup.

Sounds daunting but it really isn't, 10 servings of fruits and vegetables is two cans of whatever veg and a fruit or two.

[Michelle1]

If you eat 5 meals a day that’s 2 serves of fruit and vegetables each meal. When you weigh it out it might look a lot smaller than you expect.