Mom was right. Fruits and vegetables are good for you. Physicians and public health officials long ago joined mothers everywhere in trumpeting that message as an important adjunct in their battle to promote overall good health, to reduce the risk of many leading causes of death and to combat the United States’ rising tide of obesity. Trouble is, not a lot of people are listening.
Most of us, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, don’t come close to consuming the daily recommended amount of fruits or vegetables. The portrait is dire, clearly showing that most Americans, despite exhortations to improve, still don’t eat vegetables often enough. It gets worse. Fruit consumption in the country is in decline.
That has serious implications for U.S. medical costs and policy. Regular consumption of fruit and vegetables is one way to improve health and save money. It could help reduce the risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease and strokes and cut the incidence of obesity, all leading causes of U.S. illness and deaths.
The goal as put forth by nutritionists is for U.S. adults to consume fruits two or more times per day and to eat vegetables three or more times a day. Most Americans miss those targets more often than they hit them. Only about a third of Americans met the goal for fruit consumption in 2009. The Healthy People 2010 goal was 75 percent. About a quarter met the vegetable standard last year, though the goal was 50 percent.
No state met either goal. None came close. Residents of the District of Columbia and California came closest to the fruit standard at about 40 percent. Tennessee, with 33 percent, led vegetable consumption last year, but that’s a Pyrrhic victory. Consumption of vegetables by adults in the state actually has declined. It was 43.5 percent in 2000.