Apples up, potatoes down
Eat your veggies? It’s a tough sell for Canadians, whose consumption is at its lowest level since 1992. Our love affair with fruit, though, is going strong
The day vegetables become fatty and greasy will be the day they become popular with Canadians, the latest food trends report suggests.
For the third consecutive year, per capita consumption of fresh vegetables fell last year, hitting its lowest level since 1992, Statistics Canada reported yesterday. Processed vegetables, including frozen and canned, also lost ground.
Fruit consumption, on the other hand, was up from 2003, continuing a 10- year upward trend, a bright sign for nutritionists and dietitians.
During the same period, use of oil and fats continued to rise, much of that in the form of cakes, pastries and deep- fried foods.
“ Unfortunately, if they are not greasy, sweet or salty we don’t eat them,” University of Toronto nutritionist David Jenkins said of the decline in vegetable consumption. “ It is urgently incumbent on us to try to find ways of coaxing the public to eat more ( vegetables).”
Jenkins is about to tackle just that. He is actively canvassing for volunteers to subject themselves to six months of detailed discussion on the virtues of vegetables and a certain amount of nagging about eating a minimum daily intake. The purpose, he said, is to answer the question that bedevils most parents: How do you coax people to eat their veggies?
“ We will try to find out how we can do this and then display clearly to those who do (eat them) what the health benefits are,” he said, meaning he expects to demonstrate a marked improvement in blood pressure, cholesterol level and other measures of optimal health. On average, Canadians consumed 74.8 kilograms of fresh vegetables last year, down from 75.7 kilograms the year before, and down from 80.3 in 2001, the StatsCan report said.
Half the decline over one year was due to a turning away from the potato, also part of a threeyear trend coinciding with the popularity of the low- carbohydrate diet. But shunning the lowly potato has not led Canadians to make up vegetable eating in other ways, the report says. Staples such as onions, lettuce and carrots are also trending lower. On the other hand, fresh fruit consumption is up, the report said. Canadians ate an average of 37.6 kilograms of fresh fruit last year, up from 37.1 kilograms the year before.
Apples, bananas and oranges remained the most popular fruits, accounting for nearly half of all fresh fruit eaten. Tropical fruits are making inroads, however.
Prior to 1988, too few guavas and mangos were sold to be statistically noticed. Last year, they accounted for more than 600 grams in the average annual diet, and pineapple consumption has doubled since 1999 to 800 grams per person.
At the University of Toronto, Jenkins did the math. The consumption of 37.6 kilograms of fruit and 74.8 kilograms of vegetables means a total of 112.4 kilograms a year.
In rough figures, that’s a little more than 2 kilograms a week, or 300 grams a day.
“ An apple is 140 grams,” Jenkins said. “So you’re getting roughly the equivalent of a couple of apples a day in fruit and veg, and we say five to 10 servings a day. Eating five to 10 servings a day has been the battle cry of nutritionists in the Western world for the last 20 years.”
Susan Haines, a clinical dietitian at Princess Margaret Hospital specializing in cancer patients, took heart in the evidence that shoppers are trying new fruits.
“ My suggestion to people is to go to the store and try one new thing,” she said. “ If you are used to eating apples, bananas and oranges, try a pomegranate.
“ And it’s good to pick up a variety of colour when you’re going through the produce section — red, green, yellow and purple. It’s an easy way to make sure you’re getting a variety of nutrients.”
While fresh fruit consumption rose, that of fruit and vegetable drinks declined for the second straight year, the report said. On average, Canadians drank 24.9 litres of juice in 2004, down from 25 the year before.
“ Not a bad thing,” Haines said of the drop. “ A piece of solid fruit ( as opposed to fruit juice) offers fibre, which reduces the risk of developing cancer.” Health Canada nutritionist Danielle Brûlé cautioned against Canadians being too hard on themselves over the rise in the use of oils and fats, which rose to 23.6 kilograms in 2004 from 23 the previous year. Oil and fat consumption was only 16.1 kilograms in 1976 and has risen steadily since.
“ Salad oils that are not transformed contain essential fatty acids that are good for health,” she said, and have become increasingly available since the mid- 1990s. “Some margarines are also good,” she said. “ It’s important to look at the label.” The value of vegetables in the diet cannot be overstated, said Jenkins, also Canada research chair in nutrition and metabolism at the U of T and St. Michael’s Hospital. Fewer vegetables and more fatty foods means fewer healthy antioxidants and micronutrients, and more empty calories.
“ So it’s a double whammy,” he said. “You get fatter and you don’t have the things you need to help the arteries. And then you get the problems that come with overweight — the diabetes, the cardiovascular disease. “To us (nutritionists) this is just bad news.”
Jenkins’s Toronto Healthy Diet Study calls for the participation of 780 households in the area covered by the city phone book. Anybody interested can email co- ordinator Miriam Chang at healthy. diet@ utoronto. ca or phone 416- 946- 3654.