Fruits and Vegetables: They provide more than just color on your plate.A position-paper for the general public.Jessica LepetichSpring 2005A paper for Time, Newsweek…. A general public magazine.The recommended daily serving of fruits and vegetables by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is 2-4 and 3-5 servings respectively. The majority of Americans come no where close to reaching this goal. It is believed that inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption is one of the many reasons that the rate of obesity is rising in adults and children. Currently in the US, the research community is evaluating a number of weight-loss/weight-maintenance strategies, one of them being the effectiveness that a diet high in fruit and vegetables has in weight-maintenance and reduction in the amount of weight gain. Due to a lack of studies that directly look at this issue it has been hard for researchers to cometo a conclusion.Reducing obesity and overweight status is a major public health concern and clinical challenge right now in the United States (He et al. 2004). Obesity has increased greater than 20% in the past decade in the United States, and more than one-half of US adults are overweight or obese[see Table 1] (Newby et al. 2003). It is known that obese and over-weight individuals are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. Currently in the United States 13% of 6-11 year olds are obese and 14% of 12-19 year olds are obese. This is thought to be due to a combination of lack of exercise and improper diet by our youth. BMI Weight StatusBelow 18.5 Underweight 18.5 – 24.9 Normal 25.0 – 29.9 Overweight 30.0 and Above Obese Table 1. Assigns BMI level to status of under-weight, normal, over-weight, and obese.1The studies researched for this paper vary greatly. They include articles that summarize the results of a number of different studies that look at fruits and vegetables, articles that solely observe their subjects and get their data from this observation, and studies that give their subjects a routine to follow so that they can see how different changes to diet affect their question. The studies reviewed have been published between 2000 and 2004. All of the studies include subjects that are adult men and women ranging in age from 25 to 64 years of age. We already know that there are a number of positive benefits that come from eating fruits and vegetables. A diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with lower risks for numerous chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Knowing that fruits and vegetables can help slow down the pace of weight gain, gives people another way to help themselves. Obesity is growing so rapidly in our country and that is scary because of all of thenegative side effects. Our children are gaining weight quicker, and developing conditions that used to be rarely seen such as type II diabetes and sleep apnea. We need to step up and changethe way we eat if not just for our own health, but for the benefit of society.One of the main reasons that researchers are not sure about the impact of fruits and vegetables on weight maintenance is the fact that there are very few studies that have fruits and vegetables as the sole aspect that affects their results (independent variable), and weight change as their result (dependent variable). So far the majority of the research has come from studies that look at the whole dietary pattern, or reported on fruit and vegetable intake in context of a larger framework. As you can see in Table 2 below seven studies looked at fruits and vegetables as part of overall dietary habits and weight changes, two looked at fruit and vegetable intake in populations at risk for cancer, and one looked at fruit and vegetable intake 2in disease prevention. Out of these 10 studies only three of them had fruit and vegetables as their sole independent variable. The problem here is that not all of the studies had fruits or vegetables as an important independent variable. The studies that looked at diet as a whole talk mainly about the food group that they believe contributed the most to weight-loss rather than all the food groups that may have played a role.Part of Overall Dietary Habits At-risk populations Disease Prevention7 2 1Table 2. Shows the different articles sorted into categories based on the context that they looked at fruits and vegetables in.The difference in independent and dependent variables is another reason why a solid conclusion has yet to been reached. The differences make it harder for researchers to compare their results to those of other studies. As a result solid conclusions are harder to come by. Table 3 and Table 4 highlight nine studies and compare the differences in their independent and dependent variables. The first difference we see is in the number of subjects. They range from 74,063 subjects to 201. This is automatically a problem because studies with a lower amount of participants may have outliers (data that does not follow the trend that the rest of the data shows) in their data, and if they do not account for them their end results could be skewed (means that the results are presented in a biased or distorted way). As well, studies #2 and #3 look at both male and female participants, but #1 just looks at females and #4 just looks at males. This could be a problem because men’s and women’s bodies may react differently to fruits and vegetables. Women also tend to gain more weight as they age and if a study does not take the factor into account their results could be skewed. Duration of the study is another important factor, mainly because just using fruits and vegetables for a change in weight is not a short-term process. It may take many years for solid3results to be seen, so the longer the study the better. Our studies ranged from 1 year to 23 years.Controlling the diet of the participants of the studies is another interesting variable thatcan have large consequences. Only one of our studies controlled the amount of fruits and vegetables that their participants ate. Smith-Warner et al. (2000) increased consumption to 8 servings a day in total, which would be right on track with the USDA suggested servings. The data for this study was less varied because half of their participants were on a controlled regimen so seeing the differences with serving size became harder. The other studies that did not control intake produced data that