CDC: Too Few Eating Fruits, Vegetables

[Fauxmage]

CDC: Too Few Eating Fruits, Vegetables

http://my.eimg.net/harvest_xml/NEWS/img/20070315/45f8d2d0_3ca7_1552720070315-1476699141.jpg (http://enews.earthlink.net/article/pho?guid=20070315/45f8d2d0_3ca7_1552720070315-1476699141&article_path=/article/hea&article_guid=20070315/45f8d2d0_3ca6_1552620070315-542643240)

Fewer than a third of American adults eat the amount of fruits and vegetables the government recommends, a trend that's remained steady for more than a decade, health officials said Thursday.

By DANIEL YEE (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
March 15, 2007 6:22 PM EDT
ATLANTA - Fewer than a third of American adults eat the amount of fruits and vegetables the government recommends, a trend that's remained steady for more than a decade, health officials said Thursday. That's "well below" the government's goal of getting 75 percent of Americans to eat two servings of fruits and having half of the population consume three servings of vegetables each day by 2010, said Dr. Larry Cohen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The diet survey, part of a huge federal health survey of every state, is based on responses from 305,000 adults in 2005. It indicates the country is only about halfway toward meeting its healthy eating goal three years from now.
"We're really concerned with the lack of success in meeting these national goals," said Cohen, who works in CDC's nutrition and physical activity division.
Although the rate of fruit and vegetable consumption has remained unchanged since 1994, health officials said the goal is still within reach.
"We have more work to do over the next few years," said spokeswoman Rachel Ciccarone.
Specifically the survey showed that 27 percent of adults ate vegetables three times a day, and about 33 percent ate fruit twice a day. A serving size is a half-cup for most fruits and vegetables, one cup for leafy greens.
Senior citizens were more likely than others to follow Mom's advice to eat more veggies, with slightly more than a third of that group eating three or more servings each day. Younger adults, age 18 to 24, ate the fewest vegetables. Nearly four-fifths of that age category scraped the veggies to the side of their plates - if they had vegetables on the plate at all.
Likewise, seniors also ate the most fruit, with nearly 46 percent eating two or more servings of fruit daily. People age 35 to 44 ate fruit the least, with fewer than 28 percent eating the recommended amount of fruit each day.
The federal agency said it doesn't know why people aren't eating more veggies or fruits. Cohen said future surveys will ask people what other foods they are eating.
Susan Krause, a clinical dietitian at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, said people are eating more refined sugars or choosing protein instead of fruits and vegetables.
"There's so much information out there and people get very confused. When they're looking at protein, they feel that's the solution when they're not looking at long-term health benefits," she said. "There's so many fabricated foods now and people are looking at convenience."
Not only are fruits and vegetables lower-calorie, they also have minerals and fiber that help guard against chronic diseases and cancer, the CDC says.
The survey relied on people to report what they were eating. Telephone questioners asked how often they consumed fruit juice, fruit and vegetables. Although Hispanics ate the most fruits (37 percent) compared with blacks and whites, they ate the fewest vegetables, (about 20 percent). Whites, in contrast, ate the fewest fruits (31 percent) but the most veggies (28 percent).
Cohen said the CDC has been working on family and community programs to get more people to eat their veggies. The agency is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get more fresh produce into schools.
Krause said health officials should offer people simple options for getting fruits and vegetables in their diets, such as easy recipes in cooking classes and fruit smoothies or shakes in schools.
"If that's a way of getting it in, at least it's in the right direction," she said. "Certainly (whole) fruit is a better choice, but that could be the next alternative."
----
On the Net:
CDC info: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
Serving size info:
http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga20
05/document/html/appendixa.htm


:yea: :yea: :yea:
Not only does this mean there is more for the rest of us, the fewer vegetables the necrotarians eat, the quicker they will succumb to the myriad fatal diseases caused by rabid flesh consumption. :devil2:

I guess I'm feeling a little uncharitable towards necrotarians lately. :o :mad:

[Fauxmage]

Doesn't that picture look beautiful though? A similar picture of slabs of dead chickens, cows, and fishes wouldn't have anywhere near the same appeal, especially if accompanied by bowls of clotted mammalian lactation and avian menses. :whistle: :blecch:

[my3labs]

"Susan Krause, a clinical dietitian at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, said people are eating more refined sugars or choosing protein instead of fruits and vegetables."

I'm afraid that most of the US thinks of meat as the only source of protein.

[Fauxmage]

Yes, and I wish they would talk about the impact the Atkins diet has had on this misconception.

I recently went on an extended green juice and raw vegetable cleanse, and out of curiosity I used www.fitday.com to analyse the nutritional content of what I was eating and drinking each day. I was getting at least 25 grams of protein every day on nothing but raw greens like kale, dandelion, chard, etc., cucumbers, celery, parsley, green onions, and similar low carbohydrate, low starch vegetables. Adding a few portions of grains to this puts my protein intake up to over 50 grams a day. And that's not even adding beans or soy.

[Oracl]

:yea: :yea: :yea:
Not only does this mean there is more for the rest of us, the fewer vegetables the necrotarians eat, the quicker they will succumb to the myriad fatal diseases caused by rabid flesh consumption. :devil2:
Naughty Fauxmage. :order: But I agree completely! :D

[Fauxmage]

:shy:

[thevegantwins]

I can't even imagine having to count how many servings of fruit + veg I eat daily. I probably get my full day's requirement by noon.

[dreamer]

Well, I'm sure it doesn't help that a recent news story proclaimed "Atkins diet works best for weight loss." I don't know if any of you saw it, but the study found no increase in cholesterol or blood pressure in the Atkins group, but the people in that group lost the most weight. I think that Ornish is right that people followed the Atkins program more easily. I also think that 10 months may not show all the negative heart, kidney, and circulatory effects that would show up after years of the Atkins diet (after all, what did he die from!?). Also, if you carefully read this article, the Atkins "dieters" started gaining weight by the end of the study, even though they most faithfully followed their "diets."

Here's a copy of the story:
Atkins beats Zone, Ornish and U.S. diet advice
POSTED: 9:38 a.m. EST, March 8, 2007
Story Highlights• Atkins diet beats Zone, Ornish diet and U.S. government guidelines in new study
• Atkins loss was about 10 pounds in 12 months, vs 3.5 pounds for Zone dieters
• Atkins dieters lost average 13 pounds at six months, then most began regaining
• Study not fair, critics say; by end, few were following any of the diets very strictly

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- The low-carb, high-fat Atkins diet gets high marks in one of the biggest, longest head-to-head studies of popular weight-loss plans, beating the Zone, the Ornish diet and even U.S. government guidelines.

Even so, critics say the results show how hard it is to lose weight and keep it off.

Overweight women on the Atkins plan lost more weight over a year than those on the low-carb Zone diet. And they had slightly better blood pressure and cholesterol readings than those on the Zone; the very low-fat, high-carb Ornish diet, and a low-fat, high-carb diet similar to government guidelines.

Stanford University researcher Christopher Gardner, the lead author, said the study shows that Atkins may be more healthful than critics contend.

But the study is not a fair comparison because by the end, few women were following any of the diets very strictly, critics argue, although those in the Atkins group came the closest.

The study "had a good concept and incredibly pathetic execution," said Zone diet creator Barry Sears.

"It's a lot easier to follow a diet that tells you to eat bacon and brie than to eat predominantly fruits and vegetables," said Dr. Dean Ornish, creator of the Ornish diet.

Atkins followers lost about 10 pounds on average at 12 months, versus 3.5 pounds for the Zone dieters.

Women on the Ornish diet lost almost 5 pounds on average and those on the national guidelines plan lost almost 6 pounds. Scientifically, those 12-month results were not different enough from the Atkins weight loss to rule out the possibility the differences occurred by chance.

The dieters lost the most weight early on, including an average of 13 pounds for the Atkins group at six months -- nearly double the closest competitor, the national guidelines diet. After that, most began regaining weight, a trend most noticeable in the Atkins women.

With an average starting weight of about 189 pounds, even losing 13 pounds meant many women remained overweight.

"There's not a ton of weight loss here," Gardner acknowledged. Atkins "isn't the solution for the obesity problem," he said.

The study involved 311 women about 40 years old on average and was designed to measure the effectiveness of using a diet book to lose weight. Women were randomly assigned to read one of four diet books. They attended weekly classes for eight weeks where diet questions were addressed, but then were mostly on their own for the next 10 months.

At the end, Atkins women had slightly higher levels of HDL cholesterol, the good kind, and slightly lower blood pressure than those on the other three diets. Gardner said differences in weight loss most likely contributed to those results.

Ornish and other naysayers argued that the study does not answer a big question about the Atkins diet -- whether consistently eating all that fatty food long-term leads to health problems.

The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The authors said it's uncertain whether the results would apply to men or older women since none were studied.

The study "shows that nothing works very well," said Yale University food policy researcher Kelly Brownell. His book promoting diet and lifestyle changes similar to national guidelines was used in the study.

"To me, it just screams out for the need to prevent obesity," Brownell said.

The results echo a Harvard study published last year involving thousands of women, which also suggested that a low-carb high-fat diet might be more heart-healthy than previously thought, although it relied on women's memories of what they had eaten over two decades.

Also, those who ate fat and carbs from vegetables rather than animal sources had lower heart disease risks in the Harvard study.

Dr. David Katz of the Yale Prevention Research Center and author of several weight-control books, said the new study presents little new information and called it "much ado about nothing."

Nurse Jackie Eberstein, whose consulting company promotes the Atkins diet, said the results are not surprising. Protein makes people feel less hungry and fat helps them feel more full, which makes weight loss easier on Atkins, she said.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and from the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

[dreamer]

Just found this on the McDougall site (his answer to the above study):

Whether or not someone follows a diet depends upon how easy it is to learn. The Atkins Diet is the easiest to follow—you simply drive by a fast food window, order a burger, throw away the bun, and scrape off the pickles and ketchup, and you’re on the diet. The Ornish (like the McDougall Diet) is much harder to learn. The foods are unfamiliar. They can take time and effort to prepare. The social stigma associated with being a vegetarian is daunting. With such a steep learning curve few people succeed. This conclusion is substantiated by the observation that at 12 months the group on the Ornish diet (a diet of 10% of the calories as fat) was actually consuming 29.8% fat.

So what this study really means is changing eating habits is difficult and the majority of people are unwilling or unable to make meaningful dietary changes for any length of time. We need no more studies like this one to remind us of the fact that “diets fail” for most people—but not for everyone. How about for those people who have gotten past the learning phase and adopted a diet for a lifetime? I, for example, have discovered that a healthy plant-food based diet is the most delicious and the healthiest way to eat (kind of like windsurfing is a really fun exercise).

Studies of successful dieters needed

What we now need are studies that look at the long-term results for people who do follow various diets. (It may be difficult to find people who follow low carbohydrate diets long-term. Atkins, himself, could not follow his own recommendations—when he died he was reported to be obese with heart and artery disease.2)

The first place food affects the body is the bowels. Future investigations need to report the results of the effects of a McDougall-Ornish type diet and the Atkins Diet on bowel movements. In his own research Robert Atkins reported 70% of people following his diet are constipated.3 Anyone following the McDougall Diet knows the effects on bowel movements (often 3 times daily, easy to pass, and large).

Next investigators should look at calcium balance and see what happens to the bones on these high-protein, high-acid diets, like Atkins, the Zone, and South Beach. As a first phase, this can be simply done by measuring the amount of calcium excreted in the urine over 24 hours. Research consistently shows that a decrease in animal protein decreases loss of calcium from the bones into the urine.4 Next biochemical markers of bone turnover can be measured in the urine. These reflect the rate at which bone material is being lost. High protein diets have been shown to increase bone turnover based on these markers.5

Decreases in blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides have been found with the Atkins Diet, but these changes are a result of suppression of appetite, followed by semi-starvation, which are the underlying mechanisms of this ketogenic diet. Similar blood chemistry results can be accomplished by giving patients cancer chemotherapy, which causes them to lose their appetite and starve—the same as the Atkins Diet.6

Rather than checking risk factors, like cholesterol and triglycerides, more direct measurements of the effect of diet on the heart and blood vessels needs to be made. For example, a relevant measure would be the compliance of the artery walls, which is determined by ultrasound measurements over the ascending aorta (the large artery leading from the heart) and the right carotid artery (neck). Previous results show a 27% decrease in arterial compliance after a single meal consisting of 67% of the calories as fat.7 Reduction in blood flow in the heart arteries is also seen after one high-fat meal by use of a PET scan.8 Immediate effects of a single high-fat meal can be seen by a visual examination of the eye (conjunctival capillaries) and the oxygen content of the arterial blood. Research has shown that a diet high in fat (67% of the calories) fed to people causes the circulation in the eye to visually sludge, along with a decrease in the oxygen content of the blood by 20%.9,10

Long-term effects on the heart arteries would require months and years to assess. Reversal of atherosclerosis has been demonstrated by angiograms and PET scans after following the Ornish Diet for 12 months and longer.11 The only study of patients on the Atkins Diet has shown a worsening of blood flow at one year from all that saturated fat and cholesterol with an overall cumulative progression of artery disease (atherosclerosis) of 39.7%.12

I believe the trend has shifted away from the popularity of high-protein diets of the 90s and the first half of this decade. People have tried to lose weight eating all meat and cheese—they felt sick and were constipated, and their weight loss was temporary and trivial. In addition, we are learning that one of the planet’s greatest sources of pollution is livestock—so even if these high animal-food diets were good for humans—and they are not—they are undeniably killing our planet.
1) Christopher D. Gardner; Alexandre Kiazand; Sofiya Alhassan; Soowon Kim; Randall S. Stafford; Raymond R. Balise; Helena C. Kraemer; Abby C. King. Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women: The A TO Z Weight Loss Study: A Randomized Trial. JAMA. 2007;297:969-977.

2) McDougall Newsletter. Atkins Was Grossly Overweight and Sick– But the Media Loves the Dead Guy. February 2004.

3) Yancy WS Jr, Olsen MK, Guyton JR, Bakst RP, Westman EC. A Low-Carbohydrate, Ketogenic Diet versus a Low-Fat Diet To Treat Obesity and Hyperlipidemia: A Randomized, Controlled Trial. Ann Intern Med. 2004 May 18;140(10):769-777.

4) Giannini S, Nobile M, Sartori L, Dalle Carbonare L, Ciuffreda M, Corro P, D'Angelo A, Calo L, Crepaldi G. Acute effects of moderate dietary protein restriction in patients with idiopathic hypercalciuria and calcium nephrolithiasis. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Feb;69(2):267-71.

5) Harrington M, Bennett T, Jakobsen J, Ovesen L, Brot C, Flynn A, Cashman KD. The effect of a high-protein, high-sodium diet on calcium and bone metabolism in postmenopausal women and its interaction with vitamin D receptor genotype. Br J Nutr. 2004 Jan;91(1):41-51.

6) McDougall Newsletter. Proof that the Atkins Diet Works Like Chemotherapy
By Sickness-Induced Starvation. September 2003.

7) Nestel P. Post-prandial remnant lipids impair arterial compliance. J Am Coll Cardiol 37:1929-35, 2001.

8) Cook B, Cooper D, Fitzpatrick D, Smith S, Tierney D, Mehy S. The Influence of a High Fat Meal Compared to an Olestra Meal on Coronary Artery Endothelial Dysfunction by Rubidium (Rb)-82 Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and on Post Prandial Serum Triglycerides. Clin Positron Imaging. 2000 Jul;3(4):150.

9) Friedman M. Serum Lipids and conjunctival circulation after fat ingestion in men exhibiting type-A behavior pattern. Circulation 29:874, 1964.

10) Kuo P. The effect of lipemia upon coronary and peripheral arterial circulation in patients with essential hyperlipemia. Am J Med 26:68, 1959.

11) Ornish D, Scherwitz LW, Billings JH, Brown SE, Gould KL, Merritt TA, Sparler S, Armstrong WT, Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease.
JAMA. 1998 Dec 16;280(23):2001-7.

12) Fleming RM. The effect of high-protein diets on coronary blood flow. Angiology. 2000 Oct;51(10):817-26.

Fish Is Now Health Food for Pregnant Women