Nowadays adults and children more and more often choose to eat outdoors by purchasing a pre-cooked meal or fast snacks that contain a lot of fat and added sugar and salt. In the meantime, people physical activity and energy consumption in a day has dropped sharply. Together with unhealthy dietary habits, it may contribute to overweight and obesity in the future. Therefore, more important role worldwide plays promotion of physical activity and healthy eating habits, including the inclusion of fresh fruits and vegetables in daily routine.
Fruits and vegetables are products that make up one of four healthy nutrition groups. They enrich nutrition with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, ballast and biologically active substances that play an important role in strengthening immunity – such as vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and the like. Additionally fruits and vegetables recommend for the prevention of obesity, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and other diseases.
Studies show that healthy eating habits are formed already in childhood. Therefore, people who ate enough fruit and vegetables in their childhood will eat them later. In turn, those who ate fruit and vegetables in their childhood very little do not change their eating habits in their future lives, thus creating a risk of overweight and cardiovascular disease.
According to the Latvian Students’ Health Study Survey (year 2013/2014) the consumption of fruit and vegetables in Latvia is dramatically insignificant for both boys and girls, and this situation is worse for boys than for girls. On average, only one of four teenagers in Latvia consumes fruit and vegetables every day.
11.07.2017.
Publicēts: 11.07.2017