Five-a-day? We don’t even know how to cook them!

SCOTS are failing to eat their ‘five a day’ of fruit and vegetables because they don’t know how to prepare them, say researchers.

It is often said that families in Scotland do not buy fresh produce because it is too expensive compared to cheap snack food such as burgers and crisps.

But academics at Aberdeen University have found this reason lags far behind their ignorance of how to cook fruit and vegetables – and they lack time to do it.

Women said not having the cooking skills was the biggest reason they did not eat their five portions a day, while it was second for men behind a dislike of the taste of fruit and vegetables.

In Scotland, only one in five adults eats their five a day, with our unhealthy national diet blamed for the two-thirds who are overweight or obese. Dietician Lorraine McCreary, of Diet Scotland, said: ‘It is said that people don’t eat fruit and vegetables because they are too expensive, but this is often an excuse, not a factor, because they are not as expensive as people think.

‘In the world we live in, where there are so many vegetables which are pre-packaged within ready meals, for some people it is beyond their experience to pick up something like a parsnip, for example, and know what to do with it.’

She added: ‘People are watching the cookery programmes on television but they still don’t know. It is about education.

‘Some people might know how to cook and eat a carrot or an onion, but you can still show them an aubergine or asparagus and they won’t have a clue.’

The latest Scottish Health Survey found adults north of the Border managed an average of only 3.1 portions of fruit and vegetables a day in 2014. It follows warnings that we are eating far too many biscuits, cakes and crisps, which are blamed for the obesity crisis.

The study, by researchers at Aberdeen University’s Applied Health Sciences and Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health examined ‘perceived barriers’ to healthy eating. It found women who reported a lack of cooking skills were 10 per cent less likely to meet the recommendations for fruit and vegetables in their diet.

Disliking the taste of healthy foods or finding them too boring and the perceived long preparation time for such foods were also significant. Men interviewed for the survey cited a dislike of fruit and vegetables or finding them boring as being more significant than a lack of cooking skills.

Lorraine Tulloch, programme lead for campaign group Obesity Action Scotland, said: ‘This is important evidence of the breadth of action needed to improve the Scottish diet. Let’s ensure we improve the cooking skills of the population.

‘Let’s introduce Scottish children to a variety of fruit and vegetables while they are young, and throughout their life.

‘Let’s deliver the wide package of measures needed to improve the food environment to make the healthy choice the easy choice.’

‘Aubergine? They won’t have a clue’