Are fresh fruits and vegetables becoming too rare on young people’s plates? A new survey published on March 5 reveals that some of them cannot even name certain vegetables, even though they are classic.
Eating 5 fruits and vegetables a day is a nice slogan, but in practice, it is questionable whether today’s young people eat enough fresh foods. According to an interactive Harris study published on March 5, on “the French and daily diet”, more and more young people do not seem to be familiar with the simple varieties found in the fruit and vegetable aisles.
Is it a zucchini, a cucumber or an eggplant?
Thus, the most striking example of this survey carried out on young people aged 15 to 24 is undoubtedly that of zucchini, presented in a photo. According to the results, 18% believed they recognized a cucumber, and 2% an eggplant, bringing to 20%, or 1 in 5, the number of respondents not knowing how to answer correctly. This is twice as much as in the general population.
12% of respondents also confuse grapefruit with a blood orange and 4% do not know how to name cauliflower.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
Only 3 out of 10 young people cook fresh produce
The observation here is obvious: young people aged 14 to 24 are not familiar with cooking fresh produce, or are doing it less and less. The rest of the answers also point in this direction.
Thus 59% of participants indicate that they eat at least once a month in a fast food establishment (McDonald’s, KFC, Quick, etc.). And 44% admit to eating processed meals several times a week, a proportion almost twice that of the general population.
On the other hand, the study tells us that this trend is often linked to lack of time or money, and not to a lack of interest. In fact, 31% indicate that they cook fresh or raw products every day, and 92% indicate that they would like to cook and consume more fresh products every day.
Following this survey, Olivia Grégoire, Minister for Consumer Affairs, announced that she wanted to strengthen “French food education” especially among children to encourage them to eat healthier. But in the face of inflation and especially in the face of offers from fast food restaurants which are at the same time launching low-cost menus for just 5 euros… It’s difficult to say whether zucchini will rise again in the votes.
Slide: March: seasonal fruits, vegetables and fish
