CAN A DOZEN A DAY KEEP THE DOCTOR AWAY?

Getting five a day can help us to stay healthy, but the latest diet trend suggests more than doubling this amount of daily goodness

Are you eating enough fruit and veg? While aiming for five a day is a great starting point for better health, it fails to include other nutrient-rich foods that we should also be eating regularly. Plus, we need to exercise, and remember to hydrate – so it’s no wonder we often forget all the recommended quotas and our well-being habits begin to slide.

One eating method that aims to make this easier is devised by American physician Dr Michael Greger*, who is famous for his no-nonsense, no-calorie counting approach to nutrition. With his Daily Dozen app, you can eat and track a diet of plant-based whole foods and exercise - and the Daily Dozen Challenge offers us 12 things to eat and do each day in order to feel fit and well. But how healthy is it? We ask our experts.

WHY IT WORKS

‘The availability of cheap, processed food has fuelled the adoption of the Western diet, which is characterised by a high-calorie intake with low nutritional value,’ says Jenny Carson, senior nutritionist at Viridian Nutrition (viridian-nutrition.com).

‘This is considered a primary factor in the development of health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The Daily Dozen provides an awareness of whole foods and how much of each food group should be consumed daily.’