Americans Not Getting Their Fruits and Vegies

This last year the USDA changed its food pyramid recommendation for fruits and vegetables. Now a new analysis by the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion states that many groups are not stepping up to the guidelines.

In the past the recommendation was five servings of fruits and vegetables per day for every person. It was a general guideline, and difficult to follow because there were no amounts or volumes listed.

The recent changes took into account several factors that the old pyramid did not. It broke the requirement down by age and then gave amounts of fruits and vegetables instead of just serving amounts.

The new guidelines recommended anywhere from 2 to 6/12 cups of fruits and vegetables per day based on age. So children age 2 needed 2 cups per day while adults needed anywhere from 4-61/2 cups per day.

To find out who was meeting the standards today, and compare to old recommendations information on health and food intake was analyzed from 8,070 people who took part in a survey.

Only 40 percent were meeting the five fruits and vegetable servings a day recommendation. When that was broken down by age and the new guidelines applied numbers looked even more dismal.

Based on new recommendations most age groups were below 40 percent the recommendations. The worst group were boys age 14-18. Less than 1 percent satisfied the recommended 5 cups per day. The group to fair the best was children age 2-3, with almost half satisfying the recommended 2 cups per day.

The USDA wants to stress that physicians and healthcare providers need to remind patients about the new guidelines. The new guidelines were aimed at increasing fruits and vegetables in the diet, but also at placing age specific recommendations with amounts so individuals can better understand what they should be eating.

The health benefits of fruits and vegetables cannot be stressed enough. They are high in antioxidants, numerous vitamins and minerals, and are high in fiber. As part of a regular diet they can protect against the development of many chronic diseases including diabetes and heart disease.