1m Britons never eat fruit and veg

Almost one million British adults never eat fruit or vegetables, a survey reveals today. A further 3.5 million confess to eating a piece of fruit or a serving of vegetables only once or twice a month.

Two per cent of those who took part in the study of 1,000 people said they never eat greens, despite campaigns on healthy living.

Nationally that is equivalent to 800,000 adults, and worried experts said the figure rises when children are taken into account.

But nine out of 10 people still believed they ate healthily, the research found.

A government campaign aims to get everyone to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to stay healthy.

Eating vegetables helps cut the risk of heart disease by controlling the amount of cholesterol in the blood. But only five per cent of those polled know this is the case.

The charity Cholesterol UK, which carried out the research, said there was 'deep confusion' about how to eat healthily.

Chairman Dr John Reckless, of the Royal United Hospital in Bath, said although campaigns about smoking and obesity seemed to be getting their message through, most people did not realise that having a high cholesterol level was dangerous.