{"id":8515,"date":"2021-03-15T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zoeharcombe.com\/?p=8515"},"modified":"2021-09-27T11:05:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T10:05:52","slug":"how-much-fruit-veg-is-optimal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoeharcombe.com\/2021\/03\/how-much-fruit-veg-is-optimal\/","title":{"rendered":"How much fruit & veg is optimal?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Executive Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am known for challenging a number of dietary beliefs \u2013 dietary fat is bad\u2026 saturated fat is worse\u2026 if you create a deficit of 3,500 calories you will lose 1lb of fat\u2026 fibre is essential\u2026 and, the most famous dietary belief of all, five-a-day. I\u2019ve done a few media articles and interviews about five-a-day (Ref 1) \u2013 including a live interview on Sky News on April Fools Day in 2014 \u2013 the day a paper was published, which generated headlines that \u201cseven a day would save lives\u201d (Ref 2).<\/p>\n

I first looked at the evidence for the five-a-day slogan for my obesity book, which was published in 2009. The research I did at the time found that five-a-day was first coined at a meeting of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Produce for Better Health Foundation in California in 1991 (Ref 3). The Produce for Better Health Foundation is a trade body of companies that benefit from increased fruit and veg consumption. It did include companies as diverse as Driscoll\u2019s (berries), General Mills and McDonalds, when five-a-day was invented in 1991. The latest list of members includes Del Monte, Dole, Campbell Soup, Kellogg\u2019s, and Subway, to name just a few of the current 160 members (Ref 4). Five-a-day was created as a marketing slogan. The NCI trademarked the term and has defended the trademark since (Ref 5).<\/p>\n

Why five? Why not! It\u2019s the number of digits on one hand. It would seem like a good target to encourage \u2013 not too low to miss out on sales and not too high to seem unachievable.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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