An additional benefit of eating fruits and vegetables regularly is that weight gain can be controlled adequately. Health experts say that consuming at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day will keep you healthy and prevent the occurrence of common chronic diseases. The latest guidelines call for the consumption of at least three to five servings of fruit and four to eight servings of vegetables every day.

However the CDC survey of over 300,000 people conducted in 2005 found that less than a third of Americans ate the absolute minimum recommended quantity of fruits and vegetables.  The data for the survey was gathered from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

The BRFSS is an annual telephonic survey conducted by the CDC, which monitors health behaviour and other factors that are responsible for death and disease in the population. All 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC) were covered in this survey, which asks six questions regarding the intake of fruit and vegetables.

The CDC’s Healthy People 2010 health objectives call for at least 75 percent of Americans to eat two servings of fruits daily and 50 percent to consume three servings of vegetables every day by 2010. These objectives were launched in 2000 and aim to improve the health of Americans.

The 2005 survey indicated that the country is less than halfway toward meeting this goal.
Only 33 percent of adults ate fruit two or more times a day. Among them:
* Hispanics ate more fruit than other ethnic groups
* Men generally consumed more fruit than women
* Obese individuals consumed the least amount of fruit, while people who were neither lean nor obese consumed the most.
* College graduates consumed more fruit than those with little or no education

The survey also found that 27 percent of Americans consumed three or more servings of vegetables a day. Typically men ate less than women, while Hispanics fell behind on this count. Senior citizens ate more vegetables than those in the 18-24 age group.

The CDC said that while the average fruit consumption was the same in 1994-1996 as in 1999-2002, there was a dip in the consumption of vegetables by at least 0.2 percent during this period.

The 5 A Day for Better Health program embodies the qualitative and quantitative intake of fruit and vegetables to lead a healthy life. The program was initiated by a non-profit organization called Produce for Better Health and the National Cancer Institute in 1991. The CDC joined the program in 2005 and encouraged Americans to intake a healthy quantity of fruits and vegetables.

But the latest survey found that there is still some way to go before the majority of Americans take to fruits and vegetables. The CDC concluded by calling for a more sustained effort "including continued surveillance, identification of barriers to eating more fruits and vegetables, and environmental changes (eg, increasing the proportion of fruits and vegetables in vending machines and promoting healthful food advertising and the availability of healthful foods)".

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