Vegetables and Fruits in Young Americans Diet

For young Americans diet, especially kids and teens who are under 18, over 50% of the total amount of vegetables and fruits intake comes from whole products, generally these being represented by apples, as new survey information is showing. Only about 30% of U.S. youngsters meet the requirements for daily fruit intake on random population sample.

American youth’s whole vegetable and fruit consumption improved by 50% in the last decade, according to the reports made by experts in various fields of health and nutrition. However, the majority of children still do not benefit from the recommended quantity of vegetables and fruits than can be increased from two to three cups of vegetables from one to two cups of fruits that have to be consumed per day, as the specialists stated.

The experts analyzed a large amount of information coming from 3,000 children and teens between 3 and 18 years, from the US nutrition and health surveys. Teenagers told their interviewers all about the foods that they had eaten during the previous day. For youngsters, a close person answered all survey queries.

Generally, children reported eating a little more than a cup of vegetables and fruits per day, with almost 90 % if the intake coming from whole foods and fruit juice. The rest of that quantity was from a mixed dish and a “fruit drink” with a lower fruit content.

Children between ages 3 and 6 had less whole vegetables and fruits and significantly more juice than teenagers, on average. Children from white and Hispanic backgrounds got over 50% of their total daily consumption from whole fruits. On average, apples represented around 1/4 of the total fruits eaten during the day. Apples, citruses and other fruits were approximately 10 % each, with bananas being almost 5%, melons 3% and other fruits and fruit salads representing also 5%.

Apples are rather easy to carry, palatable and their applesauce is consumed very early by a large part of the young population. Their appreciated taste and rather thin thickness of the external layers also plays an important role in the preference among kids and teens. Unfortunately, not many of today’s US youths are aware of the enormous benefits of a healthy natural diet on the long term.

Youngster will find it to be quite hard to chew a large fruit or cannot eat it thick skin and there is also a problem with many sugary drinks that eliminate the need for healthy in children from particular backgrounds who do not have a proper balanced diet.

These studies cannot also say if the current present state of vegetables and fruits intake for U.S. children is a good or a bad one, since it can document the events that are happening right now. Apples are generally just slightly better than not having any fruit juice at all, since the majority of whole vegetables and fruits have a large amount of fibers that manufactured juices do not have in their composition. The authorities and experts still need to make continuous efforts in order to assure that their children are consuming he recommended quantity of fruits, vegetables and fibers every day.

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