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More evidence that fruits and vegetables are not a priority for Americans appears in the form of two new studies published in the April issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The studies find that American diet is not an ideal one as far as consumption of fruits and vegetables is concerned.
A diet rich in fruits and vegetables is known to prevent heart disease, cancer and other chronic ailments, besides aiding weight management. Despite repeated statements and various slogans, Americans are not eating recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables, the new studies find.
In the first study researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research in Baltimore analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) to determine the recent trends in fruit and vegetable consumption among American adults.
The study included on 14,997 adults from 1988 to 1994, and 8,910 adults from 1999 to 2002. During this period some 62 percent Americans did not include whole fruit servings in their diet, while 25 percent went without vegetables.
This means that just about 28 percent of Americans meet the recommended guidelines about eating three servings of fruits per day, while 32 percent meet them for vegetables.
Lead author Sarah Stark Casagrande, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said this trend was worrying and a serious public health concern, "Only 11 percent of U.S. adults meet the guidelines for both fruits and vegetables," she pointed out.
The second study by Ashima K. Kant and colleagues at the Department of Family, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at Queens College in New York City used NHANES data to analyze if the differences in the diet between non-Hispanic blacks and whites had narrowed down.
The study found little improvement in the diet of non-Hispanic blacks relative to whites over the years. "In 1971-74, blacks had lower intakes of vegetables, potassium, and calcium, and these differences have persisted in the latest survey in 1999-2002," Kant said. "The race differentials were not explained by race differentials in income and education."
The findings of these two studies are identical to the one released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week. The study had found that only 32.6 percent of adults eat fruit at least two times a day, and only 27.2 percent eat vegetables at least three times a day. This is way below the CDC target of getting 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.
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. However it appears to have had little success in getting Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables.
Writing in an accompanying editorial in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Linda Nebeling, acting associate director of the Behavioral Research Program in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, said the main issue appeared to be accessibility.
"We are looking at doing more about diet, physical activity and well-being," she said. "We have to help people in the search for health and well-being to overcome the barriers to eating a healthful diet."
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