Photo: Flickr
The majority of Europeans are convinced that eating a healthy diet and eating enough fruits and vegetables. The truth is very different and bring it to the surface is a relationship EUFIC (European Council for Information on food) which shows how the inhabitants of the Old Continent are far from the recommended doses, with a few pleasant exceptions.
Starting from the daily amount recommended by the World Health Organization, which is equal to 400 grams of fruit and vegetables, has reviewed the Eufic Available are the data on real consumption in the various countries of Europe (using as sources the ' EFSA , WHO and FAO). The calculation is not simple, and often the figures are not comparable with one another, since even the definition of fruit and vegetables varies from one country to another (for example some in the group include potatoes, while others exclude them and the same goes for legumes).
Broadly speaking, however, the picture is as follows: the average European consumption of vegetables (including legumes recital and dried fruit) is equal to 220 grams per day, while the fruit is 166 grams per day, for a total of 386 grams per day, an amount that remains under the "dose" recommended by WHO.
There are considerable differences between countries, especially between North and South of Europe. The Scandinavian countries are those with lower consumption, whereas in the Mediterranean fruit and vegetables are regular guests at the table. This is apparent already from the data of FAO concerning the demand for vegetables. Apparently this has not only grown in Europe in the last 40 years, but has huge differences between countries: in Finland the average supply of vegetables (excluding potatoes and legumes) is equal to 195 grams per person per day, while in Greece almost 4 times as much and reaches 756 grams.
According to WHO estimates more than half the countries of the European consumption is less than 400 grams per day and recommended that one third of them do not even exceed 300 grams. According to EFSA's analysis, based on surveys conducted in individual countries, the ideal amount is reached in only 4 out of 16 countries.
Italy ranks as the European context? Very well since, with its 452 grams of daily average, is one of those 4 countries that center the target, preceded and followed by Poland from Germany and Austria. But this group of 16 lacks many countries of the Mediterranean area that may have similar consumption. The slow lane of the ranking is, perhaps predictably, Iceland, where the per capita daily consumption of fruits and vegetables does not reach the 200 grams.
Because consumption of vegetables in most of Europe is still below the recommended daily amount? There are many reasons: high cost, or perceived as high, low education (more educated population groups in the consumption is higher), lack of good examples in the family (the children of parents who ate few fruits and vegetables tend to reproduce the same diet when they become adults).
They contain vitamins, minerals and fiber, valuable nutrients for health, but then what are the risks of a low fruit and vegetables? He thought the WHO to calculate what percentage impact on the "global burden of disease." If tobacco and alcohol is reserved for the largest share (11.7 and 11.4 per cent), followed by high blood pressure, overweight and obesity, physical inactivity, and high levels of glucose in the blood, is in eighth place precisely the low consumption of fruits and vegetables, responsible for 2.4 percent of global diseases.
The plants reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease but may also reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. According to the WHO does not consume enough to cause about 14 percent of deaths due to gastrointestinal cancers, 11 percent of deaths related to ischemic heart disease and 9 percent of deaths from stroke worldwide.
