Do you eat enough vegetables?

Your weekly dose of evidence

Only around 5% of Australians eat the recommended five serves of vegetables and two serves of fruit a day. Whether you’re vegetarian or not, most of us could do with increasing our fruit and vegetable intake, along with eating plenty of legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains. As Yasmine Probst and Joel Craddock explain, plant-based diets are high in fibre and nutrients that prevent inflammation and boost our immune systems.

Fron Jackson-Webb

Deputy Editor/Senior Health + Medicine Editor

We’ve been told there are many benefits of eating our veggies. Could they improve our immune system too? From shutterstock.com

Eat your vegetables – studies show plant-based diets are good for immunity

Yasmine Probst, University of Wollongong; Joel Craddock, University of Wollongong

There are many things we can do to support our immune systems. It turns out going vegetarian might be one of them.

Four out of five experts say a vegetarian diet is healthier. brooke lark unsplash

We asked five experts: is vegetarianism healthier?

Alexandra Hansen, The Conversation

Not eating animals might make you feel more virtuous, but is it good for your health?

From the archives: plant-based diets

Love meat too much to be vegetarian? Go ‘flexitarian’

Clare Collins, University of Newcastle

A flexitarian is a vegetarian who eats small amounts of meat.

Do vegetarians live longer? Probably, but not because they’re vegetarian

Melody Ding, University of Sydney

When we compared the risk of early death between vegetarians and non-vegetarians while controlling for a range of other factors, we did not find any statistical difference.

Food as medicine: why do we need to eat so many vegetables and what does a serve actually look like?

Genevieve James-Martin, CSIRO; Gemma Williams, CSIRO; Malcolm Riley, CSIRO

The populations of most Western countries report eating far less fruit and vegetables than they're supposed to. So what’s making it so hard for us to get to the recommended 'two and five'?

How to get children to eat a rainbow of fruit and vegetables

Yasmine Probst, University of Wollongong; Ruth Crowe, University of Wollongong

It's not just about getting kids to eat their greens; they should be eating fruits and vegetables of all different colours. Here are some strategies to make it easier.

Expert answers to serious, weird and wacky questions

Your brain is about 70% water. Shutterstock

Curious Kids: how much does a brain weigh?

David Farmer, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health

An adult brain weighs about 1.5kg. It's mostly water with some fat, protein, sugar and a dash of salt. Sounds like pancakes, I know, but I once tried chicken brains and, well, pancakes are tastier.

A few days after baby molluscs come out from tiny eggs, they start building their shell layer after layer. Emily Nunnell/The Conversation NY-BD-CC

Curious Kids: how do shells get made?

Aurelie Moya, James Cook University

Molluscs that have shells - like pipis, clams and oysters - have to build their own shell from scratch. And they keep building it their whole life, using chemicals from the sea and their own bodies.

Top picks from the week

Digital approaches mean people can access therapies from their own home. From shutterstock.com

Online therapies can improve mental health, and there are no barriers to accessing them

Sebastian Rosenberg, Australian National University; Ian Hickie, University of Sydney

Online therapies for mental health can be as effective as talking therapies. If we want to expand access to mental health care, it's important we embrace digital approaches.

Research out of the US tested different varieties of beer and wine for the presence of glyphosate – but there’s lots to consider when interpreting the findings. From shutterstock.com

Research Check: do we need to worry about glyphosate in our beer and wine?

Ian Musgrave, University of Adelaide

The amount of alcohol you'd have to drink before glyphosate posed even a negligible risk would harm you well before the glyphosate would.

Gestational diabetes is diagnosed when women have elevated levels of sugar in their blood during pregnancy. But there’s no international threshold. freestocks.org

Are you at risk of being diagnosed with gestational diabetes? It depends on where you live

Rae Thomas, Bond University; Clare Heal, James Cook University; Julia Lowe, University of Newcastle

Sarah and Donna are 26 weeks pregnant and have the same blood sugar levels. But while Donna is diagnosed with gestational diabetes, Sarah is spared from the label. It comes down to where she lives.