With the amount of deaths and morbidity from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, dementia and autoimmune disease (to name the significant few), I find it a bit amazing that the author of yet another study about the American diet is astonished by the finding that we eat so horribly.
The authors from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute did an observational study, surveying data that allowed them to calculate just how much fruit and vegetables Americans consume on a daily basis. This was their conclusion:
"... fewer than 18 percent of adults in each
state consumed the recommended amount of fruit and fewer than 14
percent consumed the recommended amount of vegetables," they write in
the CDC's weekly report on disease and death.
They continued:
People who eat just five servings of fruits and vegetables a day lower their risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other conditions.
One study found that people who ate seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables were
42 percent less likely to die from any cause over the next eight years
compared to those who ate less than one serving a day.
On average, Americans eat only one serving of fruit a day — equivalent
to a small glass of orange juice or an apple — Moore and Thompson found.
Consumption ranges from just under one serving a day on average in
Arkansas to 1.3 servings in California.
My recommendations continue to be: 5-7 servings of vegetables (organic) a day and 2 servings of fruit (organic).
People in this country appear to be stubbornly sticking to their bad food habits, perhaps hoping they won't get a disease or illness or figuring the medications their doctors prescribe will keep them healthy. I wish them the best of luck; they'll need it.
Dr. Esther
drkollars@gmail.com
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