A new study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that most Americans don’t eat enough vegetables or fruit. Only only 9% eat enough vegetables and only 12% of eat enough fruit. We’re missing fantastic food and an easy way to feel great and live longer.
What’s Enough?
The study says:
Adults should consume 1.5–2.0 cup equivalents of fruits and 2.0–3.0 cups of vegetables per day.
Those goals seem downright normal to me, especially now. I’m on the last day of the Wildly Healthy Harvest Tune-Up, where we are eating 12 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, about 6 cups total. I’ll tone it down to 10 servings in future events, but that still puts us at the top of the CDC’s range and below Dr. Greger’s recommendations in How Not to Die. Note that the study excludes fried potatoes and fruit juice.
Results by State and Age
The report shows the result by state. Only 10% of my fellow North Carolinians eat enough fruit and only 8% eat enough vegetables. West Virginia comes in at the bottom with just over 7% for fruit and just under 6% for vegetables. On the bright side, 15% of the people in the District of Columbia eat enough fruit. Despite the cold, Alaskans are the top vegetable eaters at 12%. In 41 states, young adults ate a significantly lower amount of vegetables than older adults did.
Danger: Disease and Misery Ahead
Lead author Seung Hee Lee Kwan, Ph.D. says:
This report highlights that very few Americans eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables every day, putting them at risk for chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. As a result, we’re missing out on the essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that fruits and vegetables provide.
The CDC notes that seven of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States are from chronic diseases. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables every day can help reduce the risk of many leading causes of illness and death, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and obesity.
Solutions
The CDC Guide to Strategies to Increase the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables (pdf) discusses ten strategies for getting us to eat our vegetables, including:
- Farm-to-fork programs in schools, hospitals, and workplaces
- Making it easier to buy high-quality fruits and vegetables
- Offering fruits and vegetables in cafeterias and other food service venues
I’m working on a proposal to my city of Raleigh for our comprehensive plan to offer plant-powered options at all city events where food is served. It will be good for the citizens’ health and for good our city budget. It might even inspire folks to eat more produce on their own.
Is there a barrier that keeps you from eating enough fruit and vegetables? Time, money, availability, taste? What might help you and others? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
I’ve been thinking about this for several days since I read this post. Even chatted with my husband about it while the kids napped on the road trip.
Sometimes, we are pretty good. I read through the linked statistics. Then I realized, that I don’t even meet the requirement for fruit. Generally I think 3 fruits would be excessive, but I guess a banana and an apple might be 1.5 cups.
So what are the difficulties? For one thing, my husband just doesn’t think about it. More than half the time, if I’m not home on the weekend, he’ll feed the boys lunch without a fruit or veg. They only get fruit at breakfast if I prep it. It’s kind of exhausting. Even for lunch, unless I pack a veg side or salad, husband will be happy with a sandwich and granola bar. I waffle between doing it for him because I want him to live a long time, and thinking “screw this, he’s an adult and we both work full time”.
The next issue is volume. 3.5 cups a day times 4 is 14 cups a day. Even with our produce box and a freezer, there’s no way I’m fitting a week’s worth in my fridge. Then there’s a mid week trip, ugh. The boys eat lunch at school. I know the big kid eats his veg, but not the little one.
We are doing okay on the road trip because I packed fruit and veg and there are grocery stores.
The interesting info would be to find out the volume that people eat, not just how many meet the requirement. Some night be close.
Thank you for sharing from the heart about the challenges of eating fruits and vegetables … and of caring for a family. It can be a lot of shopping and chopping! We have bananas for breakfast every day in part because they are so easy. Beans count as a vegetable and so does tomato sauce.
Other parents, do you face similar challenges? What do you do?
I’m not a parent, except to a bunch of furkids, but I am trying the Harvest Tune-Up. Some of my failures I knew going in (exercise? hah), but Linda’s spreadsheet is an eye-opener in other ways. Without green smoothies, it’s difficult to fit in the leafies and berries and flax meal every day.
I make a big shopping trip every two weeks, which means I run out of fresh stuff before going to the store. I’m going to try Linda’s genius idea of making frozen green cubes to stretch the smoothie greens, and I need to learn to make smaller portions of more different types of veggies and fruits on any given day. So, prep time … and meal planning, which is a skill I’m still trying to master.
I would probably explode before ever getting tired of cauliflower, so I eat way more than a serving when I fix it, but that isn’t every day. The whole grains are a challenge as I have celiac disease, so I’ve made a list (amaranth, buckwheat, corn, flax, oats, quinoa, rice, sorghum, teff) to check, and I may need to modify my shopping habits. Also, I’m a freelancer, and tough assignments can wipe out all my good intentions in the wink of a client’s eye. Still, I probably eat more veggies than most people do, which is…SAD, sure enough.
Chessie, thanks for sharing and the kind words! I love cauliflower too. How smart you are highlight a veggie you crave. The wonderful news is that every serving of veggies brings health benefits, so you are on right track. What an extra challenge to do this with celiac disease. Thanks for sharing your list of whole grains you can eat.