Our new 5 A Day soups have caused quite a stir! But how did these soups come about and what does 5 A Day actually mean?
Do you think that you eat all of your five recommended fruit and vegetables every day? Do you know which fruit and vegetables even count towards your 5 A Day and how much of them you need to consume?
The facts behind getting your 5 A Day
A recent NHS health review discovered that fewer than 25% of adults achieve the advised five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. In fact, 5 A Day is supposed to be the minimum, with some experts stating we actually need up to 9 portions per day. For more detailed information, check out our blog. Yet, there are so many delicious ways that we can eat more healthily. For example, the NHS and World Health Organisation (WHO) state that your 5 A Day can be eaten in cooked dishes, such as soup, stews or pasta[1].
Upon discovering this, we realised that the best and most convenient solution would be a soup that contains all five of your 5 A Day in one 600g pot. With this idea in motion, we have spent a year creating three unique soup flavours with a range of fruit and vegetables that comply with the WHO’s definition of 5 A Day:
Classic Tomato with Carrot & Red Pepper
Carrot & Butternut with a hint of Chilli
Garden Pea with Leafy Spinach
Now, we’ve added a delicious fourth flavour: Sweetcorn & Carrot with Turmeric
WHO states that a minimum of 400g of fruit and vegetables should be consumed per day for the ‘prevention of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.[2]’ The NHS then helpfully explains that the 400g of fruit and vegetables should be divided into 80g of five different fruit and vegetables (hence 5 A Day) and within this five, they cannot belong to the same fruit/vegetable family and yellow potatoes do not count at all.
5-A-Day Soups: Get your 5 A Day, The Easy Way
The issue with many products, such as fruit juices and smoothies, that claim to contribute to your 5 A Day, is that they also negatively contribute to the amount of sugar in your diet. As the NHS states, ‘crushing fruit into juice…releases the sugars contained in the fruit…[3]’ As a result, they recommend limiting your juice/smoothie intake to 150ml a day. Moreover, juices, smoothies and purees have all the fibre taken out of them and therefore the overall percentage of sugar is increased in the same volume of liquid. Our soups are not affected by this limitation, because we always keep the whole fruit and vegetables in our soups in order to maintain fibre and goodness.
Furthermore, it is always important to us as a brand to keep the nutritional traffic light completely green on all our soups. This means low calories, low saturates, low sugars, low carbohydrates and low salt. And, as always, our soups are plant-based, vegan, gluten and dairy free.
Retailing at just £2.99 a pot on Ocado and at Waitrose these soups really are #fiveadaytheeasyway.
We believe that healthy food can and should taste delicious and this is why we are always committed to innovating new products for you.
We are still a small family business and therefore every soup is tried and tested in our home kitchen by our family so that you can relax and enjoy it with yours!
The soups are available now, in retailers such as Ocado.
Keep checking our website and social media for all new innovation and soup inspiration!
References
[1] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day-what-counts/ – 05/09/18
[2] http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/fruit/en/ – 05/09/18
[3] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day-what-counts/ – 05/09/18