Here is an interesting anecdote as to how the much acclaimed "five-a-day" slogan emerged for consuming fruits and vegetables, considered beneficial to prevent cancer in human beings.
"In 1991 the American Government adopted the five-a-day policy, as growing numbers of experts were stating that bad food was causing cancer. First and foremost among them was Britain's esteemed Sir Richard Doll, the scientific hero who established the link between cigarettes and cancer. In 1981 he estimated that a third of cancer deaths in the West could have been avoided with a better diet. When Sir Richard spoke, the world took notice and, by 2007, says Willett, the experts proclaimed that eating a load of fruit and veg could reduce your cancer risk by 50 per cent. The American National Cancer Institute upped its recommendations to nine-a-day. "It was a pretty rough, arbitrary number, which is always the case with any target," says Willett. But, he adds, the studies were fatally flawed".
"They were based on retrospective evidence — asking people about their diet after they had already got cancer, which can lead people to report differently. Also, the control groups were not perfectly random, the people who volunteer for that kind of thing are much more health-conscious individuals." So, from where did the US Government get the idea for the number five, if not the scientific studies? I was closing in. Marion Nestle, nutrition professor at New York University, thinks she remembers exactly where. "It was Susan Foerster, the head nutritionist in California. She had the bright idea of promoting fruit and vegetable consumption in a state which was a big fruit and vegetable producer." The American National Cancer Institute admits that "no studies have tested the impact of specific numbers of servings on cancer risk". But it says five was chosen in California in 1988, as it doubled the average consumption, and "the number five was memorable and provided a platform for creative message and programme delivery".
Consumers must be wondering as to how any one can consume five servings of fruits and vegetables every day and it is doubtful whether any one has really taken this "mantra" seriously in the past. No doubt eating more and more fruits and vegetables are good for health and as such no one should have any quarrel with those who first "branded" this nice sounding slogan.
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