--- title: More Americans Are Eating Fruit—But Fewer Are Eating Vegetables description: A new government report details Americans' produce-eating habits. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/americans-eating-fruit-vegetables/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-09-15T20:04:04.754Z article:modified_time: 2026-09-15T20:04:05.337Z article:section: Health og:title: More Americans Are Eating Fruit—But Fewer Are Eating Vegetables og:description: A new government report details Americans' produce-eating habits. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/americans-eating-fruit-vegetables/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3fc1edaf6ea3c6d3/6aa955ccb37277768c7bed65/GettyImages-1144866230.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: GettyImages-1144866230.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Americans Are Eating Fruit—But Fewer Are Eating Vegetables twitter:description: A new government report details Americans' produce-eating habits. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3fc1edaf6ea3c6d3/6aa955ccb37277768c7bed65/GettyImages-1144866230.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More Americans Are Eating Fruit—But Fewer Are Eating Vegetables > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Sep 15, 2026 8:04 PM UTC  joannatkaczuk—Getty images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Sep 15, 2026 8:04 PM UTC In a new federal [report](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db570.htm), researchers say most U.S. adults are eating at least some [fruits and vegetables](https://time.com/5029164/fruit-vegetable-diet/) every day, but plenty aren't. During 2021 to 2023, the most recent available data, about 70% of adults age 20 and older said that they ate any fruit or drank 100% fruit juice on a given day—leaving roughly 30% of American adults who reported not eating a single piece of fruit or drinking any fruit juice. 93% said they ate a vegetable. The data are collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) as part of an [annual health and nutrition survey](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/about/?CDC%5FAAref%5FVal=https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/) that includes 5,000 adults and children. The latest numbers are similar to the dietary patterns revealed by the previous survey conducted from 2015 to 2018, though fruit intake is slightly up while vegetable intake is down. In that survey, 67% of adults ate fruit on a given day, and 95% ate a vegetable. In the latest survey, more women than men consumed fruit on a given day (74% vs. 66%). About the same proportion of women and men ate vegetables, but the type differed; while 42% of women reported eating a dark-green vegetable, only 34% of men did. Dark-green vegetables are rich in [vitamins and minerals](https://time.com/article/2026/06/09/best-foods-brain-health/) that can help the heart, brain, and bones. People with higher family incomes were more likely to eat fruits and vegetables than those with lower incomes. Across income groups, however, dark-green vegetables were the least commonly consumed kind. While the report shows that Americans are maintaining the amount of fruit and vegetables in their diets, what they're eating still falls below federal nutrition guidelines, which recommend about 2 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables daily. (One small apple is about one cup of fruit, and one medium carrot is about a half cup of vegetable.) 31% of adults reported consuming 100% fruit juice as their fruit allocation, which nutrition experts say isn’t as beneficial as [eating whole fruits](https://time.com/5301984/can-you-eat-too-much-fruit/), which provide fiber as well. The NCHS survey does not include analysis of what drives people to eat fruit and vegetables, but cost is likely to play a factor in consumption patterns. While food inflation remained low from 2015 to 2019, the pandemic [caused a jump](https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/103085) in food prices, with 3.5% average increases in grocery prices overall in ensuing years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/americans-eating-fruit-vegetables/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/americans-eating-fruit-vegetables/"},"headline":"More Americans Are Eating Fruit—But Fewer Are Eating Vegetables","datePublished":"2026-09-15T20:04:04.754Z","dateModified":"2026-09-15T20:04:05.337Z","description":"A new government report details Americans' produce-eating habits.","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/americans-eating-fruit-vegetables/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3fc1edaf6ea3c6d3/6aa955ccb37277768c7bed65/GettyImages-1144866230.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3fc1edaf6ea3c6d3/6aa955ccb37277768c7bed65/GettyImages-1144866230.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-1144866230.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"joannatkaczuk—Getty images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/americans-eating-fruit-vegetables/","name":"More Americans Are Eating Fruit—But Fewer Are Eating Vegetables"}}]}] ```