The U.S. population does not consume enough fruits and vegetables a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) concluded, NBC Health reports.
Latinos in the U.S. consume even less fruits and vegetables than the national average. Most Hispanics consume less than two servings of fruit and vegetables per day.
For its study, the CDC went through data from a national survey “to calculate just how close Americans come to meeting national recommendations.”
“These results indicate that 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,” Latetia Moore from the CDC and Frances Thompson from NCI write in the CDC’s weekly report on disease and death.
According to doctors those that eat five servings of fruits and vegetables per day lower significantly their risk for heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Unfortunately for many Latinos access to fresh produce is difficult and more needs to be done to make fruits and vegetable more accessible in food desert communities.
To increase your intake of fruits and vegetables this summer follow our healthy summer recipes social media campaign #SaludSummer.
