My mother used to always tell me that you can’t beat common sense. And so it is with some of the research articles that come across my screen with ongoing regularity. Today I read an article “How food away from home affects children’s diet quality” produced by the US Dept of Agriculture Economic Research Service.  The research is thorough and it provides a useful focus on overall diet quality.

The central message that food eaten away from home is increasingly affecting diet quality, does however come back to an issue of common sense. Using my family as an example, I know that it is more difficult to control how my children eat once they walk out the door in the morning. An understanding of what constitutes balance in a diet is one thing, but faced with an abundant choice of easily accessible other food choices, it is far too easy to stray from the path of good nutrition.

The findings of this study show that fast food outlets, restaurants and other sources are directly associated with increased calorie intake and lower diet quality among children. So what is the answer? Well, common sense suggests we need to continue to push for policy and educational efforts to improve the choices made by our children. And if our children are going to increasingly consume food away from home we need to be ever vigilant in our efforts to help improve the quality of that food.

Fruit and vegetables can be part of the solution – the challenge is to ensure the availability of great tasting, healthy alternatives that tempt children when dining away from home. Common sense really….

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You will recall I recently posted about the Eat them like junk food! carrot campaign. Well someone has just sent me a link to the television advertisements which use sex and violence  and the future (well in a nice vegetable way) to sell the “eat more carrots” message. If it gets consumers eating and not just talking about carrots it will be a good thing.

Go the carrot……

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The report released this week by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has a somewhat all together familiar ring to it. While I am naturally optimistic that efforts to increase consumption of fruit and vegetables are helping to improve public health, studies like this Trend Report highlight the challenge that we all have in encouraging behavioral change.

While I have not committed the report to memory just yet, the general summary is that only about a third of US adults eat at least two daily serves of vegetables and around 25% eat at least three daily servings of vegetables – far short of the target set by authorities. Naturally enough, the media have picked up on the report with articles suggesting that Most Americans Skip Fruit and Vegetables.

These types of reports always bring out commentators who go on to question the worth of cooperative approaches that involve government and industry working together to find ways of encouraging increased consumption. I read one article this week that dismissed calls in the study to intensify such efforts as pure conjecture. Others have suggested that if increased consumption is such a public health concern then it should be funded from the public purse.

Someone once suggested to me that the “public” in this argument is actually all of us, and that unless all sectors worked together to address the issue it would ultimately go no-where. If these reports teach us anything the lesson must be that we must all look for workable, long-term solutions and not just wait until the situation gets worse before we do something.

How many serves of fruit and vegetables did you have today?

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IFAVA members around the world are involved in population based campaigns, aimed at promoting the health benefits of fruits and vegetables. The programs include 5+ a day (New Zealand); Go for 2&5 (Australia), 6 a Day (Denmark), Fruits & Veggies More Matters (United States) and other variations on the theme from Canada, France, South Africa, Spain and Argentina to mention just a few.

The challenge for us all – and not just IFAVA members - is to look at ways to work cooperatively with industry, government and non-government bodies that are out there, talking to the same consumers, about the same sort of issues. There are lessons for us all in finding ways to leverage the education and marketing efforts of others in an efficient manner.

In my in-box this week was a couple of good examples of activities aimed at two different targets.

The first example is an early childhood food learning resources package prepared to encourage children to eat a variety of vegetables and fruit. Prepared by Avocados Australia, the package includes a resource booklet to help equip early childhood educators with a range of learning tools. If you are interested in looking at the approach, a link to some of the resources is included HERE.

The second example is a mix of the old and the new, with a coalition of 50 carrot farmers in the United States – led by the largest US producer, Bolthouse Farms - set to launch a $25 million campaign on 13 September. The push will playfully use the tagline “Eat ‘em like junk food” in a range of traditional and social media including a free iPhone and iTouch game. New packaging that resembles potato chip bags will also be tested. Check out the new website to see the appraoch in action. It is certainly something different for carrots that should get people talking (and eating).

The great thing about both efforts is that they are well directed and strongly push the healthy eating message for individual commodities. Perhaps all that is missing is that strong link to the national generic campaigns. After all, increasing the size of overall demand for fruit and vegetables, provides even more opportunity for individual industries to convince consumers to eat even more of their products.

Avocados or carrots anyone!

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Is there anyone out there not suffering from information overload? No. Just as I expected. So it makes good sense to make sure that you tap into a cross section of relevant information. If videos are your thing, why not head over to the fruits & veggies more matters website and check out their extensive collection. The great thing is that is doesn’t matter where you live, the same general principles apply to healthy eating, so why not see what others have on offer.

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The great thing about encouraging people to eat more fruits and vegetables is that it simply makes good sense. When you were younger your mother most likely told you to eat up those veggies at dinner time and grab a piece of fruit on your way to school (actually she still does when she visits but that’s another story). Now it is the researchers that continually give us even more food for thought.

Today I spotted the results of a study that appeared in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. The summary, which appeared in Science Daily is to the point: Adding a variety of vegetables to one’s diet may help decrease the chance of getting lung cancer, and adding a variety of fruits and vegetables may decrease the risk of squamous cell lung cancer, especially among smokers.

Pass me another serve of those veggies please!

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The International Fruit and Vegetable Alliance is an international non-profit non-government organisation with a clear focus on promoting the health benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption. Naturally enough our members work with and have access to a range of information and resources that can be shared more widely with interested individuals and organisations. Through this site, we hope to make available a cross-section of information that relates to the work being undertaken. Over time we will include links to interesting newsletters and resources; take snippets of information from the mass media; include research news from scientific journals and look at public policy that impacts on the overall issue of healthy eating. We welcome your input and invite you to visit us regularly or subscribe to receive regular updates from the site.

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