Making veg the star!

We all know that veg are good for us, but we sometimes forget why! And few people eat enough. So here’s a quick reminder of why they’re so important. Potentially more important than fruit even!

Macronutrients

It’s obviously important to get a balance of healthy fats, protein, carbs and fibre. And most veg don’t contain much protein, and hardly any fat. But they’re a great source of carbs and fibre.

– Carbs

We talk more about carbs (especially sugar) here, but to cut to the chase, they’re an absolutely critical part of our diet. Although refined / processed carbs can be very bad (see our post on whole foods for why), unrefined ones are great. Which is mainly because they’re the body’s preferred source of energy.

– Fibre

Compared to protein and carbs in particular, you rarely hear much about fibre. And that’s maybe why it’s the only macronutrient we don’t eat enough of.

It has a wide range of benefits though – see this post for more details.

Increasing our intake is an easy way of improving our diets. And veg are a great, varied source of it.

Micronutrients

Veg are perhaps best known as being packed with vitamins and minerals. But they also contain a whole host of other micronutrients, collectively known as phytochemicals.

– Vitamins and minerals

There’s a wide variety of veg containing a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. But let’s take carrots as an example of how great any one type of veg can be:

• they’re apparently nature’s richest source of vitamin A, which aids vision and the immune system, and keeps the skin healthy [6]

• they’re also a particularly good source of vitamins C, K, and B6 (so that’s 4 of the essential 13)

• and they’re also a source of the mineral potassium, which lowers blood pressure

Although not exotic or expensive, they really are a superfood!

So there are 13 essential vitamins overall, and you can get most of them from veg alone. But there are thousands of other phytochemicals too.

– Other phytochemicals

Phytochemicals are any chemicals of plant origin (so they include most vitamins).

They’re broken down into large categories such as carotenoids and polyphenols, and then again into different layers of sub-categories. Polyphenols are further broken down into categories like phenolic acids and flavonoids, for instance. And those categories can be broken down further too. 

As noted above, there are thousands of phytochemicals in total. And within any one type of veg the non-vitamin ones typically outnumber the vitamins considerably. Carrots contain at least 64, for instance.

Even though they’re not all classed as “essential”, like vitamins, there’s lots of evidence to suggest that most are still very beneficial.

Most people know that some vitamins are anti-oxidants, for instance, which support your body by helping to defend against unstable free radicals that can damage your cells. But a lot of other phytochemicals are too.

The key thing to note is that different types of veg typically have different phytochemicals, each with their own benefits.

So whilst quantity alone can be important, it’s nevertheless important to eat as wide a variety as possible.

How much veg should we eat?

Alongside fruit, veg are so good for us that we’re advised to eat at least five portions a day.

Australians are advised to eat five portions of veg plus two of fruit, and some say it should be as high as ten overall.

And this shouldn’t be a surprise…

Are veg and fruit as good as each other?

Veg are typically grouped with fruit, but they might actually be better:

• because veg score higher on the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index and contain fewer calories and more fibre than fruit, researchers at Stanford University (and elsewhere) believe that health messages should intentionally put veg ahead of fruit to promote intake and emphasize their importance [4]

• veg are apparently a lot more sustainable than fruit too, requiring just 322 cubic metres of water per tonne versus 962 [5].

“health messages should intentionally put veg ahead of fruit to promote intake and emphasize their importance”

Why don’t we eat enough?

Despite their benefits, and the wide variety of options, most people don’t eat five portions of fruit and veg a day.

Only 29% of UK adults do, for instance, and only 8% of 11-18 year olds [16].

“Only 29% of UK adults eat five portions of fruit and veg a day, and only 8% of 11-18 year olds”

Are they too expensive?

Healthy food is often seen as expensive, but that’s not really the case for most things. A kilo of carrots typically costs much less than a kilo of own-brand frozen chips, for instance.

The problem is that less healthy food is often more convenient or enticing. It’s more widely available, easier to prepare or just tastier.

And veg are typically less convenient to eat than fruit. It’s easy to grab an apple to eat on the go without much mess, but you can’t say the same about most veg!

And whereas the higher sugar in fruit makes it naturally enticing to a lot of people, veg often needs additional flavouring such as herbs and spices to tempt the taste buds.

It was the lack of convenient and tasty veg-based snacks that prompted us to develop vedge bars.

Packing as much veg as possible into a tasty, convenient bar, they give veg some punch and make them easy to munch!

Available in a variety of flavours, there’s one for every time, place and taste – find out for yourself by trying the range today.

Whilst some are similar to fruit based bars flavour-wise, they’re all lower in sugar and higher in fibre.

Each bar is also at least 2 of your 5 a day and a good source of vitamins.

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[1] http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/FiveADay/FiveADaygeneralinformation/DH_4002343
[2] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0414/010413-fruit-veg-consumption-death-risk
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4145465/
[4] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324904439_Fruits_and_Vegetables_Versus_Vegetables_and_Fruits_Rhyme_and_Reason_for_Word_Order_in_Health_Messages
[5] https://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Report-48-WaterFootprint-AnimalProducts-Vol1_1.pdf
[6] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-a/
[7] http://www.vitaminstuff.com/alphacarotene-2.html
[8] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123981/In-day-got-Easter-carrot-stick-World-War-Two-showreel-reveals-children-swapped-ice-cream-carrots.html
[9] https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/714567/effect-fruit-vegetable-intake-risk-coronary-heart-disease
[10] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24114482
[11] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3745957/
[12] https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2127836
[13] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51886334_Frequent_consumption_of_vegetables_predicts_lower_risk_of_depression_in_older_Taiwanese_-_Results_of_a_prospective_population-based_study
[14] https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/93/1/37/4597672
[15] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20807832
[16] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey#current-ndns-results
[17] http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/fruit/en/