Originally published November 7 2005
British health officials continue campaign to promote daily consumption of fruits and vegetables
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Recent nutritional studies suggest that five servings of fruits and vegetables each day should be regarded as the minimum, though health departments around the world still promote with slogans that emphasize five servings, which some doctors fear may prove too little to endow eaters with protection against disease.
The "five-a-day" slogan originated in 1991 in a promotional campaign run jointly by fruit and vegetable producers and the health department in California.
The authority had recommended a daily intake of three to seven plant foods --- five happened to be the median and coincided with a figure of 400g a day from the World Health Organisation.
Divide that by a "portion" size of 80g and you have five.
"But the 400g was never an individual recommendation or target," says Ingrid Keller, a WHO technical officer with a special remit for fruit and vegetables.
According to Mike Rayner, director of the British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group at Oxford University: "there has clearly been a muddle between population aver- ages and recommendations for individuals."
However, the muddle has become received wisdom, so that even the Department of Health cites the WHO as the source of the advice.
A Harvard School of Public Health study last year concluded that at least eight plant foods were necessary for health maintenance and disease prevention, and an Institute of Optimum Nutrition UK survey looking at tangible health improvement over three months also landed on eight to ten.
The World Cancer Research Fund concluded that ten portions did the job, while the new 2005 American dietary guidelines stretch the upper daily target to 13.
Consider the nutritional depletion that plant foods now undergo on long-haul flights and in long-term storage, says Rayner, and ten or 13 does not seem so excessive.
The government advice draws no distinction between fruit and veg, or fresh and processed, as long as you get your five.
For reasons unclear to practitioners, the Department of Health in Britain has redefined the potato so that it doesn't count towards your vegetable quota.
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