Research by the 5+ A Day Charitable Trust puts Kiwis on the global map when it comes to awareness of the health benefits and consumption of fruit and vegetables.
Awareness of the 5+ A Day message, which encourages all Kiwis to eat five or more servings of colourful, fresh fruit and vegetables every day, remains high with cut through to 87 per cent of all New Zealanders – equating to more than 4 million people.
“Compared to global statistics on fruit and vegetable consumption we rate among the highest in the world,” Paula Dudley, General Manager of 5+ A Day, says.
According to recent European Union statistics, less than 15 per cent of the total population aged over 15 consumed at least five servings a day, while one in three did not eat any fruit and vegetables every day.
And the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study of more than 140,000 participants from 18 countries globally, found that mean fruit and vegetable intake was 3.76 servings per day. It concluded that the consumption of fruit and vegetables was low worldwide.
The latest 5+ A Day research, completed in June 2017 by Nielsen, found that 37 per cent of those surveyed consumed five or more servings of fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Meanwhile, 59 per cent of New Zealanders reported eating at least four different types of fresh fruit and vegetables daily.
The research involved 700 people aged 15-plus in key regions across New Zealand. And Dudley says the Ministry of Health’s regular surveying of a much larger sample size (of 17,000 adults, including parents of 4,000 children) suggests consumption of 5+ A Day is around 40 per cent.
“Now it is time for some stretch goals – we need to keep awareness top of mind to move consumption even higher to 45 per cent. This isn’t just a numbers game – there are huge health benefits for us all in doing so,” Dudley says.