How many Americans are eating their fruits and veggies? You might be surprised…

How many Americans are eating their fruits and veggies? You might be surprised…

A new study has come to the conclusion that American's dietary habits are getting worse, not better.

A worrying new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that just 13 percent of adults in the United States consume enough fruit to meet dietary guidelines — and just 8.9 percent match the federal guidelines for vegetables.

The worst state was in Tennessee, where just 7.5 percent of adults ate enough fruit, but it’s bad across the entire South and even in areas where it’s the highest, it’s alarmingly low, according to a Reuters report.

Lead author Latetia Moore of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC, said that fruit and vegetable consumption has been low for quite a while, but this is the first time that officials have really been able to take a deep look on a state-by-state basis. The southern states show the worst fruit and vegetable consumption rates, but the numbers nationwide are bad, the report found.

Moore and other researchers look at the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as state-reported numbers and examined them using a new scoring procedure. Half of the respondents consumed fruits less than once per day, and they ate vegetables at a rate of less than 1.7 times daily, based on 2013 numbers.

Federal guidelines recommend that Americans should eat between 1.5 and 2 cups of fruits and up to 2 to 3 cups of vegetables per day if they get less than 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily. Those who are more active can eat more than that since they burn a lot more calories, according to the report.

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