Increase produce intake with Juice Plus+: New report shows Americans and Europeans eating fewer fruits and vegetables

Americans and Europeans Eating Fewer Fruits and Vegetables

We know they’re good for us. We know we should be eating more of them. And the government must feel like a frustrated parent, continually trying new tactics to increase our consumption of them. But despite all this knowledge and effort, a new report issued by the  Netherlands-based Rabobank Group shows Americans and Europeans aren’t just ignoring the advice to up our produce intake — we’re actually eating fewer fruits and vegetables than we did just a decade ago.

How much is enough? Those recommendations have changed over time. Back in the 90s, the slogan was “5 a Day,” meaning that we should be eating a total of five servings of produce daily (two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables). But “5 a Day” was later acknowledged to be the bare minimum. In 2005, the USDA released guidelines recommending we eat 7-13 cups of fruits and vegetables daily. You can probably guess we’re nowhere near that amount. (I know I’m not, and I really make an effort!)

While the Rabobank report didn’t provide specific numbers as to exactly how badly we’re doing, I was able to dig some up from the Centers for Disease Control. In 2009, the agency reported that just 32.5 percent of American adults ate fruit at least two times daily and 26.3 percent ate vegetables at least three times a day. In other words, only a third of us are meeting the outdated recommendations from 20 years ago for fruit consumption, and just a quarter of us are eating the bare minimum of vegetables.

One reason cited by the report authors for the decline in fruit and vegetable consumption over the past ten years is the lure of processed foods. They’re widely available, they’re carefully formulated by food technologists to appeal to our taste buds, they’re cleverly marketed, and they’re convenient. But are they really what we want?

This quote from a Rabobank analyst jumped out at me: “The challenge for the fruits and vegetables industry is to close the gap between what consumers say they want and what they actually do.” That’s almost exactly what Juice Plus+® has been saying for years: Juice Plus+® helps bridge the gap between what you should eat and what you do eat every day.

Do you eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables daily?

http://rabobank-food-agribusiness-research.pressdoc.com/52078-rabobank-report-fruit-vegetable-consumption-falls-despite-government-efforts-to-promote-health