If you do not eat vegetables during the meal, the volume of food ingested will inevitably be lower, with more space available for more caloric foods and this leads to a greater consumption of calories.
How do you calculate the correct amount of vegetables per day? For a total intake of 1,500-1,600 kcal, is a salad of 150-180 grams at both lunch and dinner an excessive or tolerable amount, in terms of health benefits and risks? Then I would like to know if it is wrong to concentrate the daily quantity of vegetables / vegetables in a single meal. I ask him because from next week he will eat lunch in the office (I do not have the company canteen) and, since for convenience and time saving I will opt for a wholemeal sandwich with a few leaves of salad / tomato plus a protein source, I will inevitably find myself eating the remaining part of vegetables for dinner.
He answers Andrea Ghisellipresident of the Italian Society of Food Sciences (GO TO THE FORUM)
A different quantity is not provided for fruit and vegetables depending on the various energy needs, because they are low-calorie foods and not such as to make an important contribution to the overall energy intake of the whole day. As for vegetables, the limiting factor is the seasonings (fat and salt), not the amount of product. It starts from a minimum of 400 grams per day (200 per serving), but there are no contraindications to consuming more. The portion of salad on the other hand is not 200 grams, because the chewing effort suggests a smaller serving (80 grams) and this too has the only limit of condiments. It is not necessary then to eat only salad, since
all vegetables have equal dignity and varying the choices as much as possible allows us to have the widest range of nutrients.
Vegetables and calories
Another limit, if we want, is the effect that a generous amount of fiber could have on a possible abdominal bloating, but, from the nutritionist’s point of view, more vegetables are better. So he can consume (if he can, because it is not easy) 300-350 grams of salad in one meal, only for dinner. The opportunity to divide the quantity for each meal as follows: satiety is one of the main tasks of vegetables. If vegetables are not consumed during the meal, the volume of food ingested will inevitably be lower, with more space available for more caloric foods and this leads to a greater consumption of calories. On the contrary, if you concentrate the quantity of vegetables in a single meal, especially if it is almost 400 grams of salad, you spend the whole evening chewing, you fill your belly with volume with few calories and you risk consuming an insufficient amount of nutrients.
Ideas for a sandwich
So, as advice, in addition to putting some salad and tomato in his sandwiches, as he says to do, he can prepare more with a portion of cooked vegetables and then eat. a generous plate of vegetables for dinner. Not necessarily twice as much as it would normally consume. We don’t think about it often, but cooked vegetables can fully be an excellent filling for a sandwich. A sandwich with sautéed chicory and maybe some cheese is an excellent meal. A sandwich with grilled vegetables: courgettes, peppers or aubergines. Or a filling based on zucchini omelette. In short, only the imagination can represent a limit for the use of vegetables in a sandwich and, since the variety is important, any idea is fine. Make several attempts, according to your tastes.
March 27, 2022 (change March 27, 2022 | 18:53)
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