Lucy, a British teacher from the UK who now lives in Los Angeles, California, regularly shares her observations on differences between British and American cultures on TikTok. At the party, she made a salsa with loads of vegetables in it and told the group to enjoy it because 'it's got all of your five a day in it,' but they did not understand the phrase. Her husband told her that 'five a day' is only a thing in England.
'Five a day' refers to health advice by the UK government and the NHS that everyone should eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. The advice was originally issued by the World Health Organization and was adopted by the UK Government in 2003. On TikTok, some commenters said that Americans do not know the phrase 'five a day,' while others said they would understand it.
I'm English but I live in America, and last night I said something in front of a group of people that just didn't translate to Americans at all. I made a salsa for an Oscars watch party thing, and it had loads of vegetables in it. So [I said] 'ah ha ha enjoy that, it's got all of your five a day in it' and everyone was like 'what?' I was like 'your five a day?'. And my husband looked at me and he goes 'I think that's only a thing in England'. So yeah, your five a day. We all know what that is Brits, but the rest of the world, they don't know. But you need your five a day.