Abstract
Objective: Validation of a self-monitoring ‘portions’ measurement of fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption against a standard of weighed intakes.
Design: Component of a randomized controlled trial.
Setting: Subjects attended research centres in Reading and Glasgow for instruction and monitoring but undertook free-living dietary changes at home.
Subjects: A study sample of 42 adult men and women fulfilling the main recruitment criterion of eating less than five F&V portions/day but contemplating increasing intakes and providing weighted baseline reported energy intakes exceeding (estimated basal metabolic rate×1.1).
Interventions: Subjects attended an intensive group advice session which included the specific relationship of high F&V intake with reduced risk of disease; practicalities; portion definition and measurement recording. The target was to exceed five F&V portions/day for 8 weeks.
Main outcome measures: Self-recorded simultaneous weighed inventories and F&V portion measures.
Results: Data from subjects who were not evident under-recorders showed correlations between portion and weighed intakes of r=0.73, (P< 0.000), although the portions measure tended to under-estimate intakes. Using 80 g/portion the ‘5-a-day’ concept tends to create false negatives (namely consumption could be greater than 400 g whilst recording fewer than five discrete portions) but rarely false positives (namely recorded consumption of less than 400 g did not give measures of more than five discrete portions).
Conclusions: The data suggest that the five portions F&V/day health message, if used in conjunction with defined discrete portions, would encourage desirable consumption exceeding 400 g.
Sponsorship: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cox, D., Anderson, A., Reynolds, J. et al. Measuring fruit and vegetable intake: is five-a-day enough?. Eur J Clin Nutr 51, 177–180 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600383
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600383
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Influence of habitual diet on antioxidant status: a study in a population of vegetarians and omnivores
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2007)
-
A transferable programme of nutritional counselling for rehabilitation following myocardial infarction: a randomised controlled study
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2004)
-
Evaluation of a Dietary Targets Monitor
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2003)
-
The impact on eating habits of temporary translocation from a Mediterranean to a Northern European environment
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2002)