Fruit and vegetable consumption trends among adolescents from 2002 to 2010 in 33 countries

Fruit and vegetable consumption is linked to many positive health outcomes, nevertheless many adolescents do not consume fruit and vegetables on a daily basis.

Data of 488,951 adolescents, aged 11-, 13- and 15- years, from 33 mainly European and North American countries/regions participating in the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children surveys in 2002, 2006 and 2010, were used to investigate trends in daily fruit and vegetable consumption between 2002 and 2010.

Multilevel logistic regression analyses showed an increase in daily fruit and vegetable consumption between 2002 and 2010 in the majority of countries for both genders and all three age groups. A decrease in consumption was noticed in five countries for fruit and five countries for vegetables.

Overall, a positive trend was noticed, however increases in daily fruit and vegetable consumption are still indicated.