Fruit and vegetables are essential for child's health and growth

Fruit and vegetables add flavors and rich colors, contributing to a higher sensory variety in the meals. They are important sources of a wide range of micronutrients and there is an international consensus that fruit and vegetable consumption can help to prevent a number of chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease and some cancers¹. Fruit and vegetables also add flavors and rich colors, contributing to a higher sensory variety in the meals. In most Western countries, large population groups, including children and adolescents, eat far less than the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables². Promoting the adequate intake of fruit and vegetables early in the life is particularly important to reverse this trend, because health behaviors learned in childhood tend to track into adolescence and adulthood^3-4.

1. World Health Organization, ed Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases.Report of a Joint WHO/FAO Technical Report Series.2003; No. 916.
2. Currie C, Roberts C, Morgan A, et al. Young people’s health in context. Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study: international report from the 2001/2002 survey.2004. Located at: Health Policy Series: Health Policy for Children and Adolescents Issue., Copenhagen.
3. Mikkila V, Rasanen L, Raitakari OT, Pietinen P, Viikari J. Consistent dietary patterns identified from childhood to adulthood: the cardiovascular risk in Young Finns Study. The British Journal of Nutrition. 2005;93(6):923-931.
4. Northstone K, Emmett PM. Are dietary patterns stable throughout early and mid-childhood? A birth cohort study. The British Journal of Nutrition. 2008;100(5):1069-1076.