Eaters everywhere are probably growing weary of hearing about fruits and vegetables time and time again. Ever since 1990, dietary guidelines in the United States have called for a minimum of five servings a day. Lately, experts think we should aim for nine. Nobody can be unfamiliar with the litany of health benefits that fruits and vegetables provide, their extraordinary nutrient content and their natural chemicals that guide bodily processes.
Yet, two new studies from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine show that people are still not heeding the message. Most Americans fall below—and for many, well below—the five-a-day minimum. This kind of trend transcends each individual’s diet to affect the entire nation’s public health. That’s because a diet low in produce is linked to an increased risk for diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and several cancers.
Measuring produce consumption in the U.S., researchers found that only 28% get enough fruit each day, and 32% enough vegetables. The most telling statistic is blending the two together: not quite 11% of U.S. adults meet current guidelines for fruits and vegetables. The study involved 15,000 people from 1988 to 1994, and nearly 9,000 from 1999 to 2002. An amazing 62% of people said they never consumed whole fruit, and 25% reported getting zero vegetable servings a day.
Two-thirds of the country is either overweight or obese. Experts firmly believe this is linked to diets low in produce. To spread the message, they plan on launching more programs to build on the “5-A-Day for Better Health Program established 16 years ago, including the “Fruits & Veggies: More Matters” campaign launched on March 19 of this year.
Fruit are meant to be eaten fresh and ripe as much as possible. Their health benefits are unequivocal. Almost all of them rank among the lowest glycemic index foods and even those fruits that climb up the Index a little bit still fall in the moderate or low range.
Cruciferous vegetables, the green leafy kinds, have tremendous health value. Low-carbohydrate vegetables in general (broccoli, asparagus, spinach, squash, cauliflower, arugula and the lot) have anti-aging and disease-fighting ingredients that most of us don’t get enough of in our diets. They have such minimal calories in them that you can eat them to your heart’s content, and probably should.
Getting a variety of fruits and vegetables is key: incorporate into your diet more green leafy vegetables, those with red and orange pigments, cooked tomatoes, citrus fruits, berries and melons.
Here are some examples of what constitutes a serving. For fruit: — One medium-sized fruit: apple, banana, orange, peach, etc. — ½ cup (or 125 ml) of cooked, canned or chopped fruit — ¼ cup (or 50 ml) of dried fruit — 125 ml of fresh fruit juice (a medium-sized glass) — one wedge of melon
For vegetables: — ½ cup of raw or cooked vegetables — a small bowl of salad or a soup filled with vegetables — one cup of raw leafy vegetables — 200 ml of vegetable juice — one medium-sized vegetable: a large carrot, a large piece of broccoli, a tomato — ½ cup of cooked potatoes
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Garden Your Way to Better HealthTags: Diets, low carb diet, obesity
