Adult Fruit, Vegetable Intake Below Federal Guidelines.

Fruit and vegetable intake has been persistently low for years but we just recently developed a way to look at how each state is doing" in terms of meeting recommendations, said lead author Latetia V. Moore of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC. “It is surprising how low intake is in some southern states but how disappointingly low it is across the U.S.,” Moore told Reuters Health by email. Moore and her coauthors analyzed the most recent Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using a new scoring procedure to compare state-reported numbers, which are usually expressed as “frequency of intake,” to federal requirements, normally counted in “cups per day.” Overall, in 2013, half of respondents consumed fruit less than once per day and vegetables less than 1.7 times per day. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/17/us-health-nutrition-fruit-vegetables-idUSKCN0PR26N20150717