Healthy eating and 5 a day.

It's the school holidays. The one time of year when I get to watch television.

A couple of days ago I saw a repeat of QI where the inimitable Stephen Fry asked a question about how many portions of fruit and vegetables we should eat. 

It turns out that 5 a day is a made-up figure. I was both shocked and fascinated by this and put down my Sainsbury's chocolate doughnut and googled "5 a day" almost immediately.

The QI website has links to 2 articles, one from the Guardian: Is five a day enough? (sic) and one from the Times which both claim that the figure is completely different in other countries and that in Japan, people are encouraged to eat 17 portions of fruit and vegetables daily.

One of my tasks for this summer is to put together a "Healthy Eating" topic for year 9 French students.  

I've done some research and found some useful websites with information, not just French, on healthy eating and the "mythical" 5 a day.

French

One of my favourite sites is mangerbouger.fr It has a lot of information on healthy eating and lifestyle, in particular a section called Fruits et légumes: au moins 5 par jour

I also came across this site fraichattitude.com which has an amazing wealth of information, recipes and  even quizzes. This site claims we should aim to eat 10 a day!

An article on doctissimo also claims we should aim to eat 10 portions a day. This page also has links to information about healthy living and a page all about fruit and vegetables.

This official Guide alimentaire Canadian site has a chart giving specific information on age and gender and the amount of fruit and vegetables should be eaten.

 

The Swiss site 5amtag has a page in French entitled 5 par jour which has lots of information and a link to Olympics recipes, too. This site is also available in German.

German

This site, focus online has 10 pages of healthy eating information including one on 5 a day.

5xamtag is an Austrian site with lots of information and a children's section with interactive activities.

This site Apotheker gives information on what constitutes a portion.

Spanish

5aldia has a lot of information including pages with games specially for children.

This Mexican site cinqopordia has some good information and games for children to play, too.

This site fruitsandveggiesmorematters has a Spanish downloadable brochure with lots of nutritional information and statistics about the kinds of things we should be eating. 

Icelandic

Yes, I'm still under the illusion that I'm learning Icelandic, so here are some links just for me...

5 á dag a poster with advice on what constitutes 5 a day. I think!

vallenes.net has lots of information about organic farming and healthy eating.

Now where did I put those doughnuts....