Want Veggies, Fruit With That?

USA Today indicates that nationally, the percentage of adults who eat fruit twice a day or more was just 32.5% in 2009, down from 34.4% in 2000. The percentage who eat vegetables three or more times a day remained relatively the same: 26.3% in 2009, down just a fraction from 26.7% in 2000.

According to the article, no state met the government target that aimed to have 75% of adults consuming two or more fruit servings a day and 50% consuming three or more vegetable servings a day. That goal was spelled out in a report called Healthy People 2010 by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

The CDC used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national state-by-state telephone survey, to assess each state's consumption, says Jennifer Foltz, co-author of the new report.

"Historically, nutrition campaigns have been social marketing campaigns targeting individuals," says Lilian Cheung of the Harvard School of Public Health. "This is not enough — we need to create an environment that supports healthy eating."

Cheryl Anderson, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says programs should include cooking and tasting sessions, perhaps at supermarkets, to familiarize people with new fruits and vegetables before asking them to spend part of their limited budget on them.