Fruit and vegetable intakes of children and adolescents in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
To identify the ways in which fruits and vegetables are consumed by children, to provide estimates of their intakes compared with recommendations, and to estimate the percentage of children meeting those recommendations.


METHODS
We examined 3 days of dietary data from respondents in the US Department of Agriculture's 1989-1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals. All foods reported in the survey were disaggregated into their component ingredients; all fruit and vegetable ingredients were assigned specific weights to correspond with a serving as defined by current dietary guidance materials; and the number of servings of each fruit and vegetable was tallied.


METHODS
A total of 3148 children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years in the 48 conterminous United States.


METHODS
Percentages of fruit and vegetable servings consumed in various forms, mean number of servings consumed per day, and percentage of persons meeting various recommendations by sex/age, race/ethnicity, and household income.


RESULTS
Nearly one quarter of all vegetables consumed by children and adolescents were french fries. Their intakes of all fruits and of dark green and/or deep yellow vegetables were very low compared with recommendations. Only one in five children consumed five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.


CONCLUSIONS
Pediatricians should encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables, especially dark green and deep yellow vegetables, by children.
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
S M
SM
Krebs-Smith
A
A
Cook
A F
AF
Subar
L
L
Cleveland
J
J
Friday
L L
LL
Kahle
D000293:Adolescent; D017195:Adolescent Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D044469:Racial Groups; D014481:United States; D014675:Vegetables