Americans not eating enough....

FRUITS and VEGETABLES!! But not us,huh? :p

I yanked this off Fox News (ahh...ya caught me!)

Study: Americans Need to Eat Their Vegetables
Tuesday, August 24, 2004

CONCORD, N.H. — Despite years of public service campaigns — and lectures from Mom — Americans still aren't eating even close to enough fruits and vegetables, according to a recent study.

What's more, most people don't know how much produce they are supposed to eat.

More than 85 percent of consumers are not eating the federally recommended minimum of five servings of produce a day, according to an AC Nielsen (search) poll of 2,472 people.

And nearly 60 percent think eating one to four servings is enough for a healthy diet; 20 percent said one or two servings is enough.

The government recommends two to four servings of fruit and three to five servings of vegetables daily. Serving examples include three-fourths of a cup of juice, a medium apple or a half-cup of chopped vegetables.

The government is updating those guidelines and is expected to raise the recommended servings of produce early next year.

The poll, conducted on behalf of the Produce for Better Health Foundation (search), a nonprofit nutrition education group, found that nearly half of those questioned ate just one or two servings of produce a day.

Here's another story...blueberries in the news! Hooray for Alissa's Blueberry Pie!


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A compound used by blueberries and grapes to fight off fungal infections could help lower cholesterol, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

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The compound, called pterostilbene, also helps regulate blood sugar and might help fight type-2 diabetes, the researchers told a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia.


The finding adds to a growing list of reasons to eat colorful fruit, especially blueberries, which are rich in compounds known as antioxidants. These molecules battle cell and DNA damage involved in cancer, heart disease, diabetes and perhaps also brain degeneration.


"We are excited to learn that blueberries, which are already known to be rich in healthy compounds, may also be a potent weapon in the battle against obesity and heart disease, which are leading killers in the U.S.," Agnes Rimando of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) in Oxford, Mississippi, said in a statement.


Rimando's team had previously found pterostilbene in grapes. It is similar to a better-known antioxidant in grapes -- resveratrol.


They studied pterostilbene in rat liver cells, soaking them in four compounds found in blueberries including pterostilbene and resveratrol. Pterostilbene was the best at activating the PPAR-alpha receptor, a protein involved in lowering cholesterol and other blood fats.


In fact, they told the meeting, pterostilbene worked as well as the commercial drug ciprofibrate -- but it worked more accurately. It was so specific that it could have fewer side-effects than the drug, they said.


It is impossible to know yet if simply eating blueberries will lower cholesterol, Rimando said. But a range of health expert groups, including the federal government, advise eating as many as 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day and blueberries are highly recommended.


Pterostilbene and resveratrol are related chemicals belonging to a group of compounds called phytoalexins. Plants produce them in response to stresses such as fungal infection and ultraviolet light.


Pterostilbene may also be a promising compound to develop into a natural-based fungicide, Rimando said.

I'm not surprised about the article. They have people believing that french fries are a vegetable and ketchup is a vegetable and that kool-aid can replace the vitamin C in us like a glass of fresh squeezed juice!