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Present affiliation: Department of Health Promotion & Social and Behavioral Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 986075 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-6075, USA
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Present affiliation: The Center for Human Nutrition, 505 Durham Research Plaza - Rm 1024, Omaha, NE 68105-1313, USA
Fruit and vegetable intake is the focus of widespread research interest in health. Yet, single precise meanings of the terms 'fruits' and 'vegetables' are not universally shared. Although there is a botanical definition of fruit, there is none for vegetables. Various classification systems have been suggested, for example, on the basis of botanic families, colours and edible parts of plants(1) and on the basis of food composition profiles(2). However, health professionals have not adopted a universal classification system. Definitions of fruits and vegetables according to health professionals and consumers are heavily influenced by cultural customs and norms related to food selection and preparation. Even within a particular country, consumers vary widely in the categories they use to describe various foods. For example, potatoes are often thought of as starches rather than as vegetables; vegetarians may think of legumes primarily as proteins rather than as vegetables.
Lack of common agreement within and across countries has led to varying operational definitions in guidelines and guidance. For example, the USA(3,4) and Australia(5) include potato as a vegetable, whereas the World Cancer Research Foundation has in the past excluded potato (and other starchy tubers) in its recommendations to increase vegetable intake(6).
In the USA, the definition and recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables were set out in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans(3) (and are consistent with the recently released report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010)(4). These guidelines recommend two cups of fruit and two-and-a-half cups of vegetables per day (reference category: 8368 kJ (2000 kcal) energy intake). The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) maintains the MyPyramid Equivalents Database (MPED) that includes information about each food in terms of both fruit and vegetable cup equivalents consistent with...