Half of young Australians don’t know the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables. [Image: Flickr/Jessica Mullen]
A new survey of young Australians has found one in two don't know how many servings of fruit and vegetables to eat in a day, and even fewer know the serving sizes of common fruit and vegetables. The survey of 106 university students aged 18 to 24 found only 54 percent knew the recommended daily amounts of fruit and vegetables. Participants in the survey, conducted by University of Sydney researchers, also did not know the correct serving sizes for three of the four foods tested in the study (grapes, carrots and lettuce) - although most could correctly identify the serving size of an apple. Some participants estimated the serving size of grapes to be just one grape, and others estimated the serving size for carrots to be the equivalent of 20 carrots, when it is 20 grapes and half a medium-sized carrot (or half a cup of chopped carrot). The survey has been published in the Dietitians Association of Australia's journal Nutrition and Dietetics . According to the University of Sydney researchers - health psychology expert Barbara Mullan and PhD student Emily Kothe - this is the first concrete evidence young Australians don't know their fruit and vegetable basics. "When we asked participants to identify the vegetables in a beef hotpot recipe we gave them, only 78 percent classed canned tomato as a vegetable, and even less identified onion as contributing towards their vegetable intake (71 percent).
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