Come on, this isn’t what’s meant by “fruits and vegetables”

Aaron Carroll

June 5, 2014

From the UDSA, some charts on food consumption and availability. Let’s start with vegetables:

Potatoes are the number one consumed vegetable. Tomatoes are second. Why? Because – and I’m getting this from the USDA – we eat a lot of french fries and pizza. They even separate out potato chips, and dehydrated potatoes (are those Pringles?). THAT DOESN”T COUNT. I bet onions are high because we eat a lot of burgers. Or maybe onion rings (h/t @MDAware). This isn’t what we meant by “eat more vegetables”.

Now fruit:

Everything that’s in orange (which seems to be most of it) is juice. So basically, you’re getting the empty calories, and some vitamins I suppose.

Really, America? Really?

@aaronecarroll

Health Policy
calories, fruit, obesity, vegetables

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Aaron Carroll

Aaron E. Carroll, MD, MS is co-Editor-in-Chief of The Incidental Economist and tweets at @aaronecarroll. He is the Chief Health Officer at Indiana University. He is also a Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Research Mentoring at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In addition to contributing regularly to The New York Times and the Atlantic, he is the author of four books, most recently The Bad Food Bible.

Come on, this isn’t what’s meant by “fruits and vegetables”

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Aaron Carroll

The Incidental Economist

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