Americans not getting enough fruit & veg
March 17th, 2007
A CDC report has been released showing that Americans are not eating enough fruit and vegetables.
The CDC promotes 3 or more servings or vegetables and 2 or more servings or fruit as part of a balanced diet.
The report shows however, that less than 33% of adults are eating at least 2 daily servings of fruit and only 27% claimed to eat 3 or more servings of vegetables.
So why is it so important to eat fruit and veg?
Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure and cholesterol, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis, and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss.
There are many State run programmes aimed at promoting fruit and veg consumption but I have always thought this campaign from the UK is among the best. Rather than placing fruit and veg into food type categories, they use a color chart. It’s pretty cool, you can check it out here: 5 A Day – The Color way
Another great UK initiative started by Jamie Oliver has had great success in getting junk food out of schools and replacing them with proper cooked meals with real fruit, vegetables and meat. During the television series, we got to see Jamie quizzing kids on vegetables and fruit. He would hold up a asparagus or carrot for instance and was shocked to discover that none of the kids had a clue what it was.
So, if you or your kids could do with some good ol’ fashioned schooling on the difference between a carrot and a pumpkin, how about joining one of the many eco-neighbourhoods scattered around the States?
You get to plant and grow fruit and vegetables and take home the fruits of your labour. It’s good exercise, you learn something and to top it all off, you get to eat the produce! Pretty nifty. This website has a list of some of the eco sites out there.
Perhaps some of you could start your own eco-garden and extend an invitation to your family and friends as well.
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