DATE=11/15/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=W-H-O/DIET (L O)

NUMBER2-309856

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The World Health Organization says millions of people are dying each year because they do not eat enough fruit and vegetables. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports that W-H-O and its sister agency the Food and Agriculture Organization have launched an education and information campaign to promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables.

TEXT: The World Health Organization says there is some truth to the adage that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

The U-N agency estimates that two-point-seven million people die each year because they do not eat enough fruit and vegetables. The organization says poor diet is one of the top 10 risk factors leading to premature death.

A W-H-O spokesman, David Porter, says a diet that includes fruit and vegetables provides the micro-nutrients essential for good health.

///PORTER ACT///

If you are not eating enough fruit and vegetables, you basically are eating a lot of something else. And, that something else tends to be too much carbohydrate or too much protein or too much of any one of the other intakes that should be in, what we call, a standard diet. Basically, you need fruit and vegetables to have a balanced diet.

///END ACT///

The World Health Organization recommends eating a minimum of 400 grams of fruit and vegetables a day. It says this can help prevent chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and obesity. These non-communicable diseases account for almost 60 percent of global deaths. W-H-O says unhealthy food, together with lack of exercise and the use of tobacco, make up the world's main preventable risk factors.

//opt//Mr. Porter says illnesses like cardiovascular diseases, once thought of as rich country maladies, are spreading to the developing world. Unless people in poor countries do not improve their diets, he says they will be in serious trouble in 10 to 20 years.

He says the trend of global marketing and distribution of food is also to blame.

///2nd PORTER ACT//

It really is having an effect on countries that simply are not used to consuming these sorts of food and are getting a lot less physical activity than they used to because increasingly people are living in large urban settings and not doing much physical work.

///END ACT/// // end opt//

Although people everywhere in the world do not eat enough fruit and vegetables, W-H-O says the problem is most acute in Asia, Africa and in Eastern and Central Europe. (SIGNED)

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