The amount of vegetables you need to eat depends on your age, sex, and level of physical activity. In general, the USDA recommends eating vegetables three times a day. At every meal, half of the plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables contribute important nutrients to the human body. Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with a decreased risk of many chronic diseases including heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and some cancers.

In 2021, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data showed that 25% of Vermont adults age 18 and older reported eating vegetables three or more times daily. This is compared to 12% of Vermonters from lower socioeconomic households that are less likely to eat vegetables at least three times daily. This is lower than the rate of Vermont adults age 18 and older eating vegetables three or more times daily in 2019, but the difference is not significant. 

This disparity is influenced by lack of access, both monetary and physical, to fresh fruits and vegetables. Vermonters with lower income are more likely to live in areas classified as a “food desert”, a place where people have little or no access to healthy food choices. 

Fruits and vegetables contribute important nutrients to the human body. Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with a decreased risk of many chronic diseases including heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and some cancers. Eating fruits and vegetables can also help with weight management.

• Vermont Department of Health District Offices: District office staff promote healthy eating, including vegetables, through educational programs, assisting with organizing farmers markets and promoting worksite wellness and other programs that encourage healthy eating.
• Division of Family & Child Health, Vermont Department of Health: Through WIC and other programs Vermonters are encouraged to eat vegetables and other healthy foods.
• Division of Economic Services Three Squares program, Vermont Department of Children & Families: Three Squares provides funds for groceries to low income Vermonters. This includes opportunities to double the buying power for fresh produce. 
• Vermont SNAP-Ed – SNAP-Ed is the nutrition and physical activity education side of the 3SquaresVT program and aims to helps people who are eligible for 3SquaresVT have healthy food options and get regular physical activity. 
• Vermont Farmers Markets: Promote and sell Vermont vegetables and accepts Three Squares (electronic balance transfer) benefits for local fruits and vegetables.
• Vermont Food Bank: Makes fresh produce available to Vermonters who use the Food bank and provides information on vegetables storage and preparation.

• Healthy Community Design strategies such as incorporating community gardens, farmers markets, and zoning policies for grocery stores to be in central locations that are accessible particularly to people with low incomes.
• Extending food and nutrition assistance programs, such as SNAP and WIC, to include farmers’ market purchases for fruits and vegetables using coupons or electronic benefit transfer (EBT) increases access for individuals and families with low-income to access fresh produce. 

More information can be found in the CDC Guide to Strategies to Increase the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables.

At the Vermont Department of Health, multiple strategies are being utilized to increase vegetable consumption among adults with low-income.

• The WISEWOMAN (Well Integrated Screening and Evaluation For Women Across the Nation) program, connects woman with heart health screening services. This program has also connected woman with the Farm to Family program to help improve nutrition and provide access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
• The Department distributes the DASH diet, an eating plan rich in fruits and vegetables designed to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, to primary care staff in Vermont’s patient centered medical homes via the Blueprint for Health’s Program Managers, Practice Facilitators and Community Health Teams. Hard copies from the Department can also be requested by health professionals across the state.
• The Health Department grants money to Vermont organizations to carry out nutrition education and obesity prevention strategies in areas of high need through its SNAP-Ed program. This includes helping SNAP-eligible individuals and families get fresh fruit and vegetables, learn how to cook with and store produce, and get more physical activity. Grantees offer programming in Barre, Bennington, Newport, Rutland and St. Johnsbury.
• The SNAP-Ed program funds the Vermont Foodbank to offer VT Fresh, a program that increases client access to fresh fruits and vegetables through cooking demonstrations, taste tests at food shelves and community locations, and increases in food shelf capacity to stock fruits and vegetables. 

Prevalence describes the proportion of individuals with a given trait in the population during a specified period of time. It is calculated by using descriptive statistical procedures using software such as SPSS, SAS, and/or SUDAAN.

Low socioeconomic status (SES) are individuals who have a high school or less education and live in households with annual incomes less than 250% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Every four years (previously every two years) the BRFSS includes questions on the type, quantity, and frequency of vegetable consumption that respondents engaged in. These numbers do not necessarily reflect serving size. Responses are normalized to represent daily consumption of the number of vegetables consumed during a typical week.

Vermont tracks risk behaviors and chronic disease using a telephone survey of adults called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). Vermont participates in the BRFSS with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov/brfss). The results are weighted to represent the adult population (18 or older) of the state.

In 2017, the CDC changed how they asked fruit and vegetable consumption questions and what specific fruits and vegetables were asked about within the questions. As a result, the Vermont Department of Health recommends that comparisons between BRFSS fruit and vegetable consumption data from 2017 forward and 2015 and earlier years be made with caution. Statistical differences may be due to methodological changes in data collection, rather than changes in opinion or behavior.

Age adjustment is used for comparison of regions with varying age breakdowns. In order to remain consistent with the methods of comparison at a national level, this measure is age-adjusted. For more detailed information on age adjustment visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/statnt/statnt20.pdf.