Indicator 2 6 : Daily intake of fruits and vegetables

Goal: Minnesotans will be healthy. This goal encompasses both physical and mental health throughout life. It is also aimed at reducing disparities in health status among racial and ethnic minorities. Indicators for the goal deal with both health status and health care.

Rationale: Behaviors learned in childhood can have long-term health consequences in adulthood. Eating five or more fruits and vegetables per day is associated with lower risk of some types of cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke.

Year 1998 14.3% 2001 14.8%

Data source: Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning

Year 1998 11.3% 2001 12.2%

Data source: Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning

About this indicator: This indicator measures the percentage of students who ate five or more servings of fruit, fruit juices or vegetables on the previous day. Males reported slightly higher rates at 17 percent of ninth-graders and 15 percent of 12th-graders, compared to females at 13 percent of ninth-graders and 11 percent of 12th-graders. These rates have remained the same for ninth-graders and improved only slightly for 12th-graders since the last survey in 1998, but are alarmingly low.

For comparison: Nationally, 23.9 percent of students reported eating an average of five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day over the past week. African American students (27.8 percent) were more likely than either Hispanic (24.0 percent) or white students (22.5 percent) to report eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, high fat and high sugar foods such as cakes, cookies, pastries and pie are eaten by 41 percent of youth each day. High sugar foods such as candy are eaten by 46 percent. Nearly 35 percent of females and 39 percent of males eat french fries or fried potatoes each day.

Things to think about: Good nutrition is as essential to health and well-being as it is to growth. Some dietary factors help prevent disease, whereas others contribute to disease. Diet is associated with coronary heart disease, some types of cancer, stroke and Type II diabetes and osteoporosis. Diet can contribute to risk factors for disease such as obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Improving healthy eating habits is a personal responsibility for every individual.

Technical notes: Collected in the 2001 Minnesota Student Survey, this data measures the percentage of students who answered "five or more servings" to the question, "How many servings of fruits, fruit juices, or vegetables did you eat yesterday?" Daily intake of fruit and vegetables is a new indicator in the 2002 Children's Report Card.

Sources:

• Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning, Minnesota Student Survey. 2001 www.cfl.state.mn.us Minnesota Department of Health, Healthy Minnesotans, Minnesota Public Health Improvement Goals for 2004, www.health.state.mn.us
• National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System>/i>, http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/index.htm
• Child Trends DataBank, www.childtrendsdatabank.org
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health 1998, www.cdc.gov
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Food and Nutrient Intakes by Children 1994-1996; 1998, www.barc.usda.gov