Tag: Five-A-Day

Love smoothies? “2.5 of your 5 A Day” claim ruled to be false by ASA

Love smootheis poster with dubious claimYou know that you really shouldn’t believe everything you read. Especially when it’s written on an advertisement. And if it’s a science or health claim on an advert, then you really know to be sceptical. Because, for as long as man has been trying to sell something, he has tried to get one over on his would-be customer. Science and health claims just happen to be an easy way to do it.

Things aren’t as bad as they used to be (just look at some of these medical ads of the 1890s!). For the road to marketing success is now littered with the empty packets of products that tried to dupe us – companies selling anti-ageing creams have been caught out airbrushing their models, car manufacturers have been discovered revved-up their vehicle specs, pro-biotic yoghurts have claimed health benefits that didn’t exist and even the biggest brands –as in the case of Reebok’s ‘butt toning’ training shoes – have been caught with their pants down embellishing the science. Read more

Why “7 a Day” is the new “5 a Day”

Oh-ah, Love Veggies! by Mark Magnusson, on FlickrYou probably saw the news last week that you should “Forget five a day: You need SEVEN portions a day for a long life”. Yes you read that correctly, research now tells us that should eat seven – or possibly even ten – portions of fruit and veg every day to help keep disease at bay. I’m guessing the prospect of getting that much leafy stuff every day leaves you a little green about the gills. And if not, then I dare say you are getting a little irate about yet another example of joyless ‘experts’ telling us to “eat this” and “don’t eat that”. Don’t they realise how hard it is to get the family eating more carrots and peas as it is? But I’ll let you in on a little secret… most doctors weren’t in the least bit surprised at the news. For we have long known that ‘5 a Day’ was never really enough to ward off the worst of disease. Read more

New Findings: How the ‘Five-A-Day’ Scheme has changed what we eat (or not)…

Do you think you eat enough fruit and veg? If you’re like most of us – then you probably don’t.

FruitsAlmost a decade has passed since governments around the world starting telling us to eat ‘five-a-day’. Upping your intake of vegetables has been shown to reduce your chance of heart attack, stroke and cancer. But have these high profile initiatives made even the slightest bit of difference to our eating habits?

Analysts from the University of Bolgna have been trawling through data from the UK since the British ‘Five-A-Day‘ programme started in 2003. They have just published their findings and they make some interesting revelations…

Read more