It really annoys me then, when people don't even make an attempt. I do know some very fussy people who will only eat about one type of fruit and one type of vegetable, so I suppose it would be a bit difficult for them, but even just eating a portion of each every day would still be better than nothing.
I did struggle to eat my 5 a day when I was travelling through some countries last year. In Ethiopia, where the staple dish in 'Injera' which is like a vinegary stodgy pancake, we struggled. Well actually, this was mainly because we didn't eat anything. We spent a lot of time travelling and lived mostly on bread and water, and got quite thin.
In Kenya, after 2 days in the back of a lorry, mainly surviving on biscuits and the odd 'soda' (fizzy drink - in this case Blackcurrant Fanta was the favourite, although I'm sure it didn't have even a trace of one Blackcurrant in it) and so by the end of the second day, I cracked and bought a very expensive tin of Pineapple. On first glance, I was quite pleased to see that it was 'Produce of Kenya'. However, reading the small print below, I realised that although this Pineapple had been grown in Kenya, it had then been packaged in the UK, and then shipped back to Kenya to be sold to me! Ridiculous, I would have much preferred a fresh one!
My stay in the Cook Islands was the most expensive part of my trip, especially on Aitutaki (where Shipwrecked is filmed) as there is no 'backpacker' accommodation, and so the cheapest was NZ$35 a night (Only about £17 but my average night was more like £3 or £4). Luckily, Mariati who owned the guest house, also owned a fruit plantation, and so fresh bananas, pineapples, mangoes and passion fruits were included in the price of the stay, as was toast. That's me sorted!
In Argentina, when I first landed in Buenos Aires, I'd picked up some sort of stomach virus in Peru and was feeling pretty rough. Randomly, the only thing I fancied eating (and could keep in me) was cherry tomatoes and skittles. Whilst I'm sure the cherry tomatoes did me quite a lot of good, I wonder how much nutrition I got from the Skittles?
Then, I met a group of girls, and we would wander around Buenos Aires and eat empanadas (like small pasties) all day, so then return in the evening and want to eat salad to counter balance this. Some fruit and veg, like tomatoes, apples, oranges were really expensive, but bananas and root vegetables were really cheap, as they are all grown locally, or in neighbouring countries.
I was in heaven when I discovered that you could buy an entire large Butternut Squash for less than 50p!! The sort of size that would cost at least £3 here. Amazing!
It really annoyed me then, when I got back to England and saw a programme about a family of really obese people living just outside Buenos Aires, who claimed that they wanted to eat healthily, but could only afford cheap fatty meat. They were filmed going into the supermarket and holding up one apple and all tutting over the price, and then left the fruit and veg section. Now I realise that apples were expensive and definitely out of the budget of the poorer families there. But potatoes, carrots, bananas, squashes were all passed by, and these were easily affordable and much less than the cheapest pasta and crisps.
Equally, it annoys me in England. There is an obesity crisis and no one can deny that as a population, we are getting fatter and fatter. It suits me in some ways, as it means children's clothes are made in bigger sizes to accommodate the expanding younger generation, and so I can easily buy children's clothing, but it is worrying. Again, you read reports of poor families saying they'd love to eat fruit and vegetables, but just can't afford to. Yet they can afford to eat McDonald's.
I read a report in the Metro (apologies if this means it's not true) recently, saying that you can eat your 5 a day for 42p a day. People sometimes only think of fresh fruit and veg, when of course, you can count frozen, tinned and juiced fruit and vegetables. This seems amazingly cheap and unrealistic, but then not so much when you actually look at how much, a tin of basic peaches, costs. Considering there are usually 2 portions in a tin, that's less than 10p for one portion. Sorted.
Sainsburys also seem to be on a mission to make the 5 a day accessible and so fruit and vegetables are always on offer, making it easy to eat healthily...but sometimes I wonder where else I could get my 5 a day from?
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