Measuring fruit and vegetable intake : is five-a-day enough ?

OBJECTIVE:

Validation of a self-monitoring "portions' measurement of fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption against a standard of weighed intakes.

DESIGN:

Component of a randomized controlled trial.

SETTING:

Subjects attended research centres in Reading and Glasgow for instruction and monitoring but undertook free-living dietary changes at home.

SUBJECTS:

A study sample of 42 adult men and women fulfilling the main recruitment criterion of eating less than five F&V portions/day but contemplating increasing intakes and providing weighted baseline reported energy intakes exceeding (estimated basal metabolic rate x 1.1).

INTERVENTIONS:

Subjects attended an intensive group advice session which included the specific relationship of high F&V intake with reduced risk of disease; practicalities; portion definition and measurement recording. The target was to exceed five F&V portions/day for 8 weeks.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Self-recorded simultaneous weighed inventories and F&V portion measures.

RESULTS:

Data from subjects who were not evident under-recorders showed correlations between portion and weighed intakes of r = 0.73, (P < 0.000), although the portions measure tended to under-estimate intakes. Using 80 g/portion the "5-a-day' concept tends to create false negatives (namely consumption could be greater than 400 g whilst recording fewer than five discrete portions) but rarely false positives (namely recorded consumption of less than 400 g did not give measures of more than five discrete portions).

CONCLUSIONS:

The data suggest that the five portions F&V/day health message, if used in conjunction with defined discrete portions, would encourage desirable consumption exceeding 400 g.