Know Your Numbers (KYN): Fruits and Vegetables

KYN. Do Filipinos eat enough?

Eating fruits and vegetables lowers the risks of suffering from complications of non-communicable disease like hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Being a tropical country, fruits and vegetables are abundant in the Philippines (PH). But are we eating enough? Let’s look at the numbers.

KYN. Fruits World vs PH.

The average fruits consumption in the world is 81.3 grams (g)/day. Note as an example, 1 medium-sized banana is 100 grams. Barbados topped the list of countries eating the highest amount, 418 g/day. Filipinos eat on the average 110.6 g of fruits per day.

KYN. Fruits and Stroke.

To help prevent stroke, the recommended fruit consumption is 3 servings per day. One serving of fruits is 100 g. Therefore, to achieve this goal we need to eat at least 300 g of fruits per day. Do we Filipinos eat enough fruits, when we only eat on the average 110 grams/day?

KYN. Vegetables World vs PH.

The average consumption of vegetables in the world is 208.8 g/day. Lebanon, 316.2 g/day, and China, 305 g/day, topped the list of countries that eat lots of vegetables. Note as an example, 1 medium-sized potato is 100 grams. The top three countries with the lowest consumption are Vanuatu, 34.6 g/day. Filipinos eat on the average 45.9 g/day of vegetables. and Hungary 61.9 g/day. The Philippines is second at the bottom three.

KYN. Vegetables and Heart Disease.

To prevent heart disease, we need to at least eat 3.7 servings of vegetables/day. One serving of vegetables is 100g. Therefore, to achieve this goal we need to eat at least 370 g of vegetables per day. To prevent heart attack, we need to consume 5 servings per day equivalent to 500 g per day. Filipinos are not eating enough vegetables. The recommendation is at least 370 grams per day and Filipinos eat on the average only 45.9 g/day.

KYN will help drive the campaign for us to eat more fruits and vegetables. Our “a:care website” aims to spread the information on the specific benefits of fruits and vegetables, list food choices, visualize weight in grams, food servings, recipes and meal plans.

Micha R, et al. Global, regional and national consumption of major food groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis including 266 country-specific nutrition surveys worldwide. BMJ Open 2015;5: e008705. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008705