Americans Still Short on Vegetables Intake

I may have shared this recently, but something dawned on me the other day. When the low carb diets came into vogue, people believed that the foods that caused their weight gain were foods such as fruits, veggies and whole grains, so they eliminated ALL fruits, veggies and grains. However, as I started to really think about the usual client that I see, I realize that these were NOT foods people were eating in the first place! It was no surprise, however, that when people started to eliminate the crackers, potato chips, and the endless amounts of snack foods they lost weight. It’s such a shame, though; people still thought it was the whole foods mentioned above that attributed to their weight problem. They don’t realize that they have eliminated evening snacking. No one enjoys ‘snacking’ on a hunk of meat while watching TV at night.

Generally when I start working with a new client, we will investigate just how many servings of fruits and veggies they eat per day, and it’s quite often they are eating NO veggies each day and maybe one fruit per day. So, this newly reported survey by the CDC is no big surprise. The telephone survey of more than 305,000 adults in 2005 showed that 38% of all Americans eat two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables per day. The goal is for 75% of all American’s to be eating this much daily by 2010, but this level is no different than it was in 1994.

Specifically the survey showed that 27 percent of adults ate vegetables three times a day, and about 33 percent ate fruit twice a day. A serving size is a half-cup for most fruits and vegetables, one cup for leafy greens. Senior citizens were more likely to eat veggies, but younger adults, between 18 and 24, had the fewest with nearly 4/5ths having no veggies at all! Findings were similar with fruits. And we wonder why we are seeing increased obesity in young adults??

This brings us back to what I said above; it is found that people are eating more refined sugars and eating protein foods instead of fruits and vegetables. They are confused and many don’t realize, or believe that fruits and vegetables are much lower in calories and fill you up more quickly. People also want convenience and processed foods fit that need easier than whole, natural foods. It’s showing, America! We are getting bigger and bigger.

To take and see the results of a quick survey, click this link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15923252/