One-third UK adults meet ‘5-a-day’ recommendation

A new National Diet and Nutrition Survey from the Department of Health and the UK Food Standards Agency shows that just 31% of adults aged 19-64 years meet the recommended ‘5-a-day’ of fruit and vegetable portions.

On average, adults eat 4.1 portions of fruit and vegetables every day, while they were also found to eat below the recommended amount of oily fish. Government guidelines advise adults to eat on portion (140g) of oily fish every week, but the mean consumption is around 54g.

Adults exceeded the recommended level of saturated fat intake, however, consuming on average 12.7% of food energy from saturated fat, above the recommended 11%.

Almost one-quarter (23%) of women were found to consume lower iron than the recommended level and 3.3% of the adult women surveyed had evidence of iron-deficiency anaemia.

Other findings revealed that 18% of adults had low vitamin D status, which has implications for bone health, including increased risk of rickets and osteomalacia.