Micrograms, milligrams, and the infamous '5-a-day'
A big part of the motivation behind setting up The A to V was wanting to decipher the science behind credible nutrition advice. Frankly, it's more than a bit ridiculous when even some of my friends with PhDs struggle to describe what one portion of fruit and veg looks like. So here's a breakdown of what the amounts used for micronutrient recommendations are. And because they're such a good way to get vitamin & minerals - plus cause such widespread confusion when it comes to portion size - some ideas for getting your 5-a-day + of fruit and veggies.
Focusing on the whole diet, not on indIvidual nutrients
Reducing diets down to single nutrients may be a tactic favoured by journalists, but in nutrition (as with most things in life) the bigger picture view is often the better way. We don't eat micronutrients, we eat meals. So for a whole diet approach to getting balance, take a look at the Eatwell guide. This isn’t intended to be a strict guide for each and every meal, but a recommendation for the ratios of different foodstuffs you need over the course of a day. I would add that the three easiest things you can do to make sure you’re eating your vitamins and minerals, rather than popping them, is to:
Eat as many wholegrain, brown carbohydrates as possible, or choose fortified versions of refined (white) carbohydrates like breakfast cereals and white bread where you can.
Load up on the fruit and veg. Try making sure at least a third to a half of your plate or bowl contains veggies or fruits at every meal.
Meat and/or dairy are good sources of many vitamins and mineral, so if you don’t eat them, make sure you’re eating lots of leafy greens, soy foods like tofu and tempeh, nuts and beans, and consider taking supplements to make sure you're still getting adequate amounts of certain vitamins and minerals (especially for vitamin B12).
For large fruit such as grapefruit, 1/2 a fruit is 1 portion
Each of these medium sized fruits counts as one portion of fruit and veg
3 heaped tbsps of cooked veg are equal to 1 portion of veg.
Two kiwi fruit are one portion.
This large bowl of salad, weighing in at 160g, counts as 2 portions.
What does a portion of fruit and veg look like?
According to the WHO, we should be aiming for 400g + of different fruit and vegetables every day, which equates to 5 servings each weighing in at 80g. If, like most people, you can't immediately visualise this then panic not. This roughly equates as the following. And yes - dried fruit, pulses and beans, and juice do all count:
For any berries, cherries, grapes and other very small fruits - 1 generous handful
For small fruits such as plums, apricots and kiwi - 2 fruit
For medium sized fruit such as apples, bananas, and pears - 1 fruit
For large fruit such as grapefruit or mango - 1/2 a fruit
For melons, papaya, and other very large fruits - 1 average slice
For dried fruit - 1 heaped tbsp
For fruit juice - no more than 150 ml
For salad - 1 cereal bowl full
For any other vegetables, cooked, raw or frozen - 3 tbsps
For pulses or beans - no more than 3 tbsps
Each of the red squares is equivalent to one milligram (1 mg)
What is a milligram?
Abbreviated to, and written as mg, a milligram is a unit of mass that weighs 0.001 grams.
That means it's one thousandth of a gram.
Which means if you divide a grid into one thousand cubes, just one of those cubes is equivalent to a milligram. So pictured is a grid divided into a hundred cubes, or hundredths.
If you take each of those cubes, and divide them into a further 10 tiny cubes, each of these tiny cubes now represents one thousandth.
One grain of sand weighs more than 1 µg
Just one of the dots here is equivalent to a millionth, or 1 µg
What is a microgram?
Abbreviated to and written as µg or mcg, this teeny weeny measurement is a unit of mass that weighs one millionth of a gram (0.0000001g), or one thousandth of a milligram (0.001 mg).
At this level measurements become pretty damn difficult to visualise. But essentially just one of the dots in the grid to your left is equivalent to one millionth.
And although debate rages as to the mass of a grain of sand (seriously...), estimates range from 10 µg to 10, 000 µg for just one single grain of sand.