Fewer than 10% of U.S. high-school students are eating the combined recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables, a finding that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called "poor" in a report.
The report, based on 2007 data, found that 13% of U.S. high-school students get at least three servings of vegetables a day and just 32% get two servings of fruit. Fewer than one in 10 get enough of both combined.
Some states—including Arkansas and North Carolina—were significantly below those averages. But some New England states, particularly Vermont, were notably better.
The CDC said the report was the first to give such detailed information on adolescents' fruit and vegetable consumption. The data come from a national survey of about 100,000 high-school students.
CDC officials said the findings indicate a disheartening gap between how people should be eating and what they are actually consuming in an era of rampant obesity.
Federal nutrition goals for 2010 call for at least 75% of Americans to eat two servings of fruit each day and at least 50% to eat three vegetable servings.
"This is a call for states, communities, schools and families to support increased fruit and vegetable consumption," said Heidi Blanck, a CDC senior scientist who worked on the report.
The CDC also released data on a survey of adults. It found fruit and vegetable consumption was basically unchanged from when a similar survey was done in 2005: About 27% got at least three servings of vegetables a day, and 33% got two servings of fruit.
People who participated in the survey were asked, essentially, how many times a day they had fruits or vegetables.
Vermont and other states that had higher rates of fruit and vegetable consumption were also more likely to have fruit available in school vending machines or at snack shops, Ms. Blanck said.
—Copyright © 2009 Associated Press
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