5 A Day Serving Sizes and Recipe Criteria

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5 A Day and School-Age Children 5 A Day Serving Sizes and Recipe Criteria For those who say, cThere 9s NO WAY I could eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, d think again! Contrary to popular belief, eating the 5 A Day way is easy. One serving is less than you think.

And today, more than ever, there 9s a wider variety of fruits and vegetables from which to choose, whether they 9re fresh, frozen, canned or dried. One serving size is defined as ¾ cup (6 oz.) 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice 1 medium piece of fruit (apple, orange, banana, pear) ½ cup raw, cooked, frozen, or canned (in 100% juice) fruit (melon, fruit cocktail, applesauce) ½ cup raw, cooked, frozen or canned vegetables 1 cup raw leafy vegetables (salad greens) ¼ cup dried fruit (raisins, plums/prunes, apricots) ½ cup cooked, canned or frozen peas and beans (legumes) What does that look like on my plate? ½ cup of a fruit, vegetable or legume looks like a scoop of ice cream 1 cup of salad is the size of a fist or tennis ball ¼ cup of dried fruit would fit in a golf ball Do ... more. less.

fried foods like French fries count towards the 5 A Day goal? This is a tricky question because it depends on whom you ask. Technically, French fries are a vegetable. In fact, one quarter of all vegetables eaten by children and adolescents are fried potatoes (French fries). However, they do not count towards the 5 A Day goal because of their high fat content. Baked French fries might count if they meet the recipe criteria below. The 5 A Day guidelines advocate that Americans eat more fruits and vegetables as part of a high fiber, low-fat eating style. Examples of other foods that do not count because of their high fat or sugar content (or an extremely small serving size) include: Ketchup Pickles/Olives Fruit Pies/Turnovers Onion Rings/Petals Hash Browns Jalapeño appetizers Jam/Jelly Fruit-flavored shakes or ice cream Avocado/guacamole Coconut 5 A Day Recipe Criteria 5 A Day recipes contribute at least one serving of a fruit and/or vegetable per serving of the recipe, and meet the following fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium guidelines: no more than 30% calories from fat (3 grams of total fat per 100 gram serving) no more that 10% of calories from saturated fat (1 gram of saturated fat per 100 grams) no more than 100 milligrams of sodium per serving Source: NC 5 A Day Toolkit Developed by NC SNAC March 2003

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