Americans Still Don't Eat Enough Fruits And Vegetables

By Growing Produce Staff|September 10, 2010

Last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 67.5% of adults ate fruit fewer than two times a day, and 73.7% ate vegetables fewer than three times daily. The goals, as set forth by Healthy People 2010, were for 75% of Americans to eat at least two servings of fruit and 50% to eat at least three servings of vegetables daily, HealthDay reports.

“Over the last decade, we have looked at behavioral intervention, like counseling to get people to include their fruits and vegetables, but it’s not so easy” said Dr. Jennifer Foltz, a CDC researcher who co-authored the report. “In the next decade, we are going to work on making the ehalthy choice the easy choice.”

Foltz added that new intitiatives will aim to promote gardening and farmers markets, as well as bringing more fruits and vegetbales into offices and schools.

Researchers found that fruit consumption has decreased by 2% over the past decade, and vegetable consupmtion has remained unchanged. The states with the highest decreases in fruit and vegetable consupmtion include: Arizona, Kansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia, the report found.