Healthy family weight and its association to vegetable and fruit consumption in Mexico.

Introduction: While fruit and vegetables consumption has been linked to lower risk of chronic disease and obesity, there has not been any large-scale household study to demonstrate an association between fruit and vegetable consumption and healthy weight. Objective: This study analyzes the association between fruit and vegetable consumption and healthy family weight in Mexican families. Methods: The study estimated grams of fruit and vegetable consumption as a proportion of the total household food expenditure from 4,128 households in the Mexican Family Life Survey 2002. Households with pregnant women, underweight members or missing anthropometry measures were excluded from analysis. Remaining households were classified as either "healthy" or "not healthy" based on the presence or absence of an overweight/obese member. Result: Only 8.2% of the households were classified as having a "healthy weight", more so in the rural areas (9.2%) than the urban areas (7.0%) (p<0.05). The mean dietary intake from fruit and vegetable was 25.2±14.4%, and varied by region, p<.001. The conditional logistic regression odds ratio predicting household "healthy" weight status from intake from fruits and vegetables was 2.29, adjusted for socio-economic level, urban/rural area and adult equivalent (p<0.05). Conclusion: Fruit and vegetable consumption significantly predicts healthy family weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]