At least Americans aspire to be healthy eaters ...
Do you think you’re a healthy eater?
Odds are, the answer is yes. According to a new survey from Consumer Reports, nine out of 10 Americans give themselves credit for consuming a diet that’s at least “somewhat” healthy.
But at least some of us are fooling ourselves, the consumer group warns.
For instance, 43% of the 1,234 people surveyed owned up to drinking at least one full-calorie soda, caramel Frappuccino or bubble tea per day. Even among those who said they were dieting, 26% indulged in at least one such drink each weekday, along with 30% of those claiming to be watching the amount of sugar they consumed and 34% who said their diets were “very” or “extremely” healthy.
And when it came to fruits and vegetables, 58% of those surveyed said they got the recommended five or more servings per day. But Consumer Reports has its doubts. When presented with a list of 33 vegetables, 15 of them were consistently described as “rarely” or “never” eaten. (Parsnips were the least popular veggie, rated as “rarely” or “never” eaten by 87% of survey respondents. Swiss chard came in a close second, seriously disliked by 86% of those surveyed.) Even more troubling is this September report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finding that more than two-thirds of Americans eat only one serving of fruit and vegetables each day – or skip them entirely.
More evidence that we’re probably not eating as well as we think: 36% of survey takers were overweight, according to their body mass index, and another 21% were obese. About one-third of the people who said they had a healthy weight (defined by the National Institutes of Health as a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9) were actually in the overweight category, the survey found.
You can read the full results here, and take Consumer Reports’ Healthy Eating Quiz here.