Fruit and vegetable consumption close to recommendations. A partly webbased nationwide dietary survey in Swedish adults

Abstract

Background: Fruit and vegetables (F&V) are strongly associated with health. The latest Swedish national
dietary survey from a decade ago showed that consumption of F&V was below recommended levels.
However, current consumption in different subgroups is not well known.
Objective: To investigate the consumption of various F&V types in Swedish adults grouped according to
sociodemographic factors and self-reported physical activity (PA).
Design: A cross-sectional survey using a quantitative pen-and-paper or web-based questionnaire in a
population-based random sample of adults 18-84 years (final n=1,304; 51%). A self-administered 24-h recall
and a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) were used to measure F&V consumption. Data on gender, age,
education level, country of birth, and PA (hours/week) were included as grouping variables. Besides
descriptive data, two-sample t-tests and non-parametric tests were performed. A P-value <0.01 was regarded
as significant.
Results: Mean F&V consumption based on the self-administered 24-h recall was close to the recommended
five portions/day: 5.4 (99% CI 5.1-5.6) portions/day among women and 4.7 (4.4-5.0) portions/day among
men (PB0.001). Also the FFQ showed that women generally consumed more F&V than men did.
Consumption was lowest among respondents with ≤0.5 h self-reported PA/week (P≤0.001), as well as
among men born in Sweden (P=0.006). F&V were consumed in almost equal amounts, and fresh F&V were
most popular. Intake of berries and cooked F&V was relatively low.
Conclusion: The present study shows a relatively high F&V consumption close to the recommended five
portions per day. Gender differences still exist. Also PA and country of birth were significantly associated with
F&V consumption.