Americans still arent eating their vegetables, and fruit consump-tion actually dropped a little last year, according to a new government report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System covering trends from 2000 to 2009 to see how were doing in meet-ing the Healthy People 2010 targets for produce consumption. No states are yet meeting those goals, which call for 75% of Americans to eat at least two daily fruit servings and 50% to consume three or more vegetable serv-ings per day. Californians ate the most fruit and Tennessee topped vegetable consumption, while Oklahomans ate the least fruit and South Dakota ranked last for veggies. Nationwide, only about a third of Americans met the fruit goal-down slightly from 2008-and a quarter got enough vegetables. We arent making progress, thats for sure, commented CDC epidemiologist Jenni-fer Foltz, MD. The report didnt look at what produce Americans do select, but a 2009 CDC study found that orange juice is the most popular fruit choice and white potatoes (often consumed as French fries) are the favorite vegetable.
