Healthy Living Survey Results

Smart girls decide for themselves.™

April 1, 2002

276 (99% female) of you responded to this survey on healthy living habits that ran from January 1 to January 31, 2002.  With an average age of 14.5 years, 64% were from the USA, 20% were from Great Britain, 10% were from Canada, 3% from Australia, and 3% from a variety of countries around the world (New Zealand, Indonesia, Barbados, Venezuela, Pakistan, Ireland, Estonia, Japan and Switzerland).

For each of the following categories (Water, Fruits, Vegetables, Grains/Starch, Protein, Fats [including oils and sweets], Exercise), SmartGirl asked you to guess how much of each category health experts suggest you eat/drink (for the foods) or participate in (for exercise).  We then asked you how much you actually eat/drink and exercise.  From this data, we compared your living habits with suggestions of experts.

WATER

Most experts suggest for a healthy diet:

    6 to 8 - eight  fl. oz. (approximately 250 ml) glasses of water per day  

Table 1.1 The Amounts You Thought Experts Recommend

*14 respondents didn't answer this question.  The percentages are calculated based on the respondents who answered the question.

Only 17% of you estimated the expert-suggested amount correctly.  Most of you thought 9 glasses of water are suggested per day – at least you estimated more rather than less!

  Table 1.2 The Amounts You Actually Drink

*7 percent of you didn't answer either how much water you consume or how much water experts suggest you consume or both.

Sixty percent of you do NOT drink enough water!  Get drinking!  Twenty percent of you drink as much as you are supposed to, and 13% of you drink more than is recommended.

FRUITS

Most experts suggest for a healthy diet:

    2 to 4 servings of fruit

   Table 1.3 The Amounts You Thought Experts Recommend

*18 respondents didn't answer this question.  The percentages are calculated based on the respondents who answered the question.

Of those who responded, almost half (41%) of you guessed the correct number of servings that experts suggest.  About another third of you didn’t guess too far off.

  Table 1.4 The Amounts You Actually Eat

*7 percent of you didn't answer either how much fruit you eat or how much fruits experts suggest you eat or both.

Over half of you eat the amount of fruit each day that you are supposed to.  Good job!

VEGETABLES

Most experts suggest for a healthy diet:

    3 to 5 servings of vegetables

  Graph 1.1 How Many Veggies You Eat and What You Think Experts Suggest

Only 32% of you are eating the right amount of vegetables each day!  Most of you aren’t getting enough.  Only 6% of you are eating more veggies than you should.  You should be eating the right amount, too!  Almost 3/4 of you know how much you should be eating each day...so why don’t you? 

GRAINS/STARCH

Most experts suggest for a healthy diet:

    6-11 servings of bread

  Graph 1.3 The Amounts You Thought Experts Recommend

Graph 1.2 The Amounts You Actually Eat

Forty-two percent of you estimated that people are recommended to eat 5 or fewer servings of bread per day.  A similar amount (40%) guessed the correct amount!  Only 3% of you thought that people should eat more than twelve servings of bread per day.

PROTEIN

Most experts suggest for a healthy diet:

       2 to 3 servings of protein (meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs & nuts)

Graph 1.4 The Amounts You Eat

Almost half of you get the amount of protein recommended each day.  Twenty-one percent of you need to beef up on your diet – get more protein!  Another 23% of you have more servings of protein than are recommended. 

Graph 1.5 The Amounts You Thought Experts Recommended       

Forty-five percent of you correctly estimated the amount of protein that experts suggest each person have in their daily diet.  Thirty-five percent of you overestimated – no more than 3 servings per day are recommended!  Only 3% of you underestimated.  Good job!

FATS, OILS, SWEETS

Most experts suggest for a healthy diet:

      Using fats, oils, and sweets sparingly.

Table 1.4 The Amounts You Think Experts Suggest

EAT HEALTHY OR UNHEALTHY?

In general, 62% of you believe that you are healthy eaters sometimes.  Twenty-three percent of you tell us that you always eat healthy. About 15% of you admit that you are not healthy eaters. (10 didn't respond to this question.)  Here are what some SmartGirls had to say:

"My mom and dad encourage me to eat healthy, plus, if I eat better, I can perform better when I play sports."- Smartgirl, age 13

"I eat junk food and I hate vegetables so they never get anywhere near my mouth. I'm a very picky eater." - Smartgirl, age 17

"I try to fit in as many fruits and vegetables as I can, and limit myself to one sweet a day, but try for 1 a week." - Smartgirl, age 15

"I've never had a weight problem or major health problem, and sometimes un-healthy foods just taste better! Plus, at school the only food that I would even think of eating is from the pizza/snack food line." - Smartgirl, age 15

"I eat lots of vegetables, grains, and breads, managing to keep up my protein though I am a vegetarian." - Smartgirl, age 13

"They don't serve any healthy food at my school." - Smartgirl, age 13

"I try not to eat anything fried, or that has more than 30% of its calories from fat." - Smartgirl, age 20

Those of you who believe you eat healthy get help from a variety of things:

Table 1.5 How You Stay Healthy

For those of you who don’t eat healthy, you have many excuses.  Most of you can’t resist the temptations of sweets and other foods that aren’t too good for you.  Some of you have valid explanations as to why you can’t eat healthy.  Keep trying, though!

   * Only 15% of the respondents answered this question.

Table 1.6 What you Struggle with to Stay Healthy

Here are what some SmartGirls had to say:

"I eat a lot of junk food just cuz it tastes the best... and its good. I think that's my problem: junk food." - Smartgirl, age 14

"I don't watch [my diet] that carefully. I eat what I'm in the mood for. It just happens that I like healthy food." -Smartgirl, age 17

"I struggle with eating healthy at lunch in school. They don't have many healthy choices, except for a salad bar, but I don't like lettuce, so I don't eat it." - Smartgirl, age 15

"I don't eat enough healthy foods, and when I get hungry, sometimes I go for the chocolate." - Smartgirl, age 12

"I seriously struggle with fast food. Between work, school, and a million activities, who has time to eat anywhere else but a fast food restaurant?" - Smartgirl, age 17

"I don't really struggle with anything, it is just that I only eat three good meals a day - 2 hot, 1 cold - and don't snack in-between, and can't eat any more than this." Smartgirl, age 14

Many of you love your soda.  Most of you drink between zero and two soft drinks each day.  Some respondents answered up to ten – we all know that is not healthy.

Table 1.7 Favorite Healthy Foods

*Based on the 244 respondents (out of 276) who answered this question.

EXERCISE

SmartGirl asked how many days per week you exercise.  This is what you told us:

Most of you exercise regularly – good job!  The most common number of days per week you exercise is three.

For those of you exercise, we asked you the amount of time you spend exercising during each session.  Most of you exercise for ten minutes to an hour.  A small proportion of you exercise of an hour or more. 

Fitness experts recommend that people exercise for at least 20 minutes a day, three times (or more) per week.  Fifty-seven percent of you do and 27% of you do not.  Sixteen percent of you did not answer the question.

For those of you who answered “yes” – you exercise the recommended amount, you told us that these are the ways that you stay healthy:

Here are what some SmartGirls had to say:

 "I have to walk to school 5 days a week and that takes me about 10 minutes each way. If I walk both ways from home to school and then school to home, I get a perfect total of 20 minutes 5 days a week. But I do exercise more than that on some days, like taking nature walks, and doing things with my mom that are exercise like bike rides." - Smartgirl, age 15

"I have basketball practice for 2 hours every night after school, and I have gym class every other day for 45 minutes" - Smartgirl, age 13

"I go running every morning when I wake up and I also do yoga each evening. I just exercise instead of watching TV or wasting my time doing nothing." - Smartgirl, age 20.

"I always do exercise at night before bed. After eating dinner, I wait and rest for at least 2-2 1/2 hours, then exercise afterwards!" - Smartgirl, age 15

For those of you who answered "no" you don't exercise the recommended amount, we asked you why not.

Here are what some SmartGirls had to say:

"I don't have the time, but at the moment I am trying to do more exercise, but it wont last for long I know :(" - Smartgirl, age 15

"Every time I try to exercise, one part of me says 'Yeah, go for it!' and the other part of me says 'No, don't do it'." - Smartgirl, age 10

"I really don't have time. I'm involved with school, piano lessons and concerts, voice lessons and recitals, and I'm currently in the musical Oliver. I'm a little underweight for my height, so I definitely don't need to lose weight. This summer when I have more time for myself I'll try to lift weights more so I can gain some muscle." - Smartgirl, age 15

"I don't have time and am not part of a sports club. I also hate gyms." - Smartgirl, age 18

  So there you have it!  Some of you are on the healthy path and others have strayed.  

Please remember that all web-based polls are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the respondents to participate in the surveys.