Not enough fruit, vegetables grown to feed a healthy diet for the world population: study

According to a new study by Canada, the world's agricultural producers are not growing enough fruits and vegetables to feed the world's population with a healthy diet.

The study, published this week in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, indicates that farming practices do not follow common sense food, producing a significant overproduction of grains, sugars and fats while growing three times less products than nutritionists suggest.

The study, led by researchers from the University of Guelph and completed by a team of more than a dozen scientists from Canada and the United Kingdom, also emphasized that the priority given to increased production of fruits and vegetables should go hand in hand with a reduction in livestock dependency. production in order to limit the overall impact of the agricultural sector on the environment.

"We simply wanted to ask the following question:" We are producing this product worldwide, which nutritionists recommend, "said University of Guelph Professor Evan Fraser, co-author of the product. study conducted by Krishna KC, researcher at the school. "The answer is no."

The study compared the 2011 UN agricultural production data with the nutritional guidelines set out in the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate or HHEP model, an internationally recognized model for healthy eating.

The study indicates that the HHEP recommends that 50% of a person's diet be composed of fruits and vegetables, 25% being dedicated to whole grains and the last quarter being reserved for a combination of proteins, fat and dairy products. The study notes that Canada's Food Guide, updated last year, calls for 27% fewer products, 34% less protein and 60% more dairy products than the HHEP model.

In order to feed everyone according to HHEP guidelines, the study revealed that world agriculture should produce 15 servings of fruits and vegetables per person per day. The 2011 data, however, suggested that current practices yielded only five servings.

The study also found a lower deficit in protein production, with three servings per person per day produced compared to the five recommended by the HHEP.

Fraser said that other food groups, however, were grossly overproduced.

According to the study, agriculture should produce one serving of oil and dairy, zero sugar and eight servings of whole grain per person per day to keep the population in compliance with HHEP.