age-related factors.”
Yet, despite our awareness of this growing body of evidence that connects fruit and vegetable consumption with optimal health, our fast-paced lifestyle often prohibits us from eating as healthy as possible. In addition, our absorption of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables can often be impaired by factors such as age or poor digestion or other nutrient-blocking factors in the foods we eat. Consequently, finding ways to supplement our fruit and vegetable intake is crucial.
Vitamin Research Products has offered three popular drink formulas – Vital Veggies, Primary Greens and Protective Fruits – which provided a way to ensure we all receive our fair share of phytonutrients. In an effort to offer a simpler more affordable option we are discontinuing these formulas and introducing one complete, cost effective, great tasting green drink called Primary Greens Plus. A high quality, bioavailable option, Primary Greens Plus offers an even wider array of phytonutrients than the original formulas did combined.
The latest 2005 USDA dietary guidelines now recommend a wide variety of 7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily for “average” women and 9 per day for “average” men. As calorie requirements increase, recommendations go as high as 13 servings for those larger and more active than average. In fact, the National Cancer Society admits that the “5-A-Day” gospel was just the bare minimum.
Despite the well-known benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption, current adherence to the USDA guidelines is low in the US. Indeed these new USDA 2005 guidelines recommend a 50 percent increase in vegetable intake, a 150 percent increase in fruits, a 250 percent increase in orange colored fruits and vegetables, and a 350 percent increase in dark greens!
The low adherence to the USDA fruit and vegetable consumption guidelines is particularly disturbing since science has found those who eat 7 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables per day suffer from a much lower incidence of the common chronic degenerative diseases of aging as compared to those who eat only 2 or 3 servings per day.
Other studies also have found that compliance when it comes to eating the correct amount of fruits and vegetables is very poor. It is routinely reported that only 1 in 5 adults follow the USDA’s old minimum “5-A-Day” advice and even less children do. (Some reports say 2 in 5 adults attain the minimum, but that was before the potato was moved from a vegetable to a grain, so French fries are no longer counted.)
In addition, it has recently been reported that only 3 percent of males report consuming the now recommended 9 servings per day. In fact, men on average eat only four servings per day. Yet only 25 percent of men believe they need to eat more! According to The Products for Better Health State of the Plate Report, “No other food commodity (fruits and vegetables) – especially one with such importance to disease prevention – has a gap this large between recommended and actual intake.”
