“The bar chart gives information about the proportion of men and women in seven age brackets (from 19 to 75+) in the UK who ate the WHO recommended amount of fruit and vegetables – upwards of five portions daily – in 2006.
Overall, the percentage of women following the recommendation exceeded that of men across all the age cohorts but the oldest one, in which it was the same. For both genders, the figures were the lowest in the 19-24 age group and the highest in the 55-64 group, with the figure for the former being half that for the latter.
Smaller proportions of men, on average, consumed a sufficient amount of fruit and vegetables than women. The figure stood at its minimum, 15%, in the youngest age bracket, while in the next three, from 25 to 54, it was only slightly higher, hovering over 20%. Standing at its maximum of 32% among men aged 55-64, the proportion then declined with age, with 25% of those older 75 eating the recommended number of portions daily.
Women, in turn, followed the intake recommendation in percentages that were larger, albeit insignificantly (except for the 75+ cohort). As was the case with men, the age group 19-24 saw the lowest recorded figure, one that was only a negligibly higher than that for men – 16%. Gradually increasing with age from 22% for 25-34-year-olds, the percentage reached 34%, the maximum, in the 55-64 bracket. It then went down to 25% in the oldest group, the exact same level shown by men.”