"9 A Day For Better Health"

The “9 A Day for Better Health” Program, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH), is an easy way to remember how many servings of fruits and vegetables a man needs to eat every day.  Any fruit or vegetable: frozen, fresh, canned, dried fruit, or juice counts toward a serving. Refer to the Food Guide Pyramid section for recommended serving sizes of fruits and vegetables.

For a man, eating nine servings a day of plant foods may reduce your risk of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and macular degeneration. Fruits and vegetables are high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and phytochemicals. The antioxidants and phytochemicals in certain fruits and vegetables are showing promising results towards preventing free radicals or cancer-causing agents from damaging cells.

Men eat only about 4½ servings of fruits and vegetables a day on average. Only 4 percent of men say they eat the 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day recommended as part of an active lifestyle.

Men are significantly less likely than women to recognize the health benefits of fruits and vegetables, such as their role in reducing the risk of many cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Men also have high rates of diet-related diseases.

• Men have approximately 1½ times the death rate of total cardiovascular diseases as women.
• Men have approximately 1½ times the death rate of total cancers as women.
• Men have approximately 2 times the death rate of lung cancer as women.
• Men have approximately 1½ times the death rate of colorectal cancer as women.
• More than two-thirds of men are overweight or obese.
• Among Americans overall, at least 58 million have some form of cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure, and 8.2 million Americans alive today have a history of cancer.

How to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet:

Ways to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet include the following:

• Drinking fruit or vegetable juice, or eating fruit cocktail with breakfast.
• Having a fruit salad, a piece of fruit, or baby carrots instead of potato chips with a sandwich.
• Having vegetable soup or a garden salad with low-fat dressing as an appetizer.
• Stocking up on dried, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables.
• Setting fruits and vegetables in bowls in the kitchen, making them more visible.
• Having microwaved vegetables with dinner. 
• Taking pre-washed cut snacks of fruit and vegetables with you to work or shopping. 

Nutrition Tip: At your next visit to the grocery store, reach for apples and carrots for snacks instead of cookies and chips. For more convenience, choose pre-cut or individually packaged fruits and vegetables such as raw "baby" carrots, fruit cups, small boxes of raisins, or bagged salads.