Objective: To present disparities in consumption of vegetables and fruits in Europe and to discuss how educational level, region and level of consumption influence the variation. Design: A review of selected studies from 1985 to 1997. Setting/subjects: 33 studies (13 dietary surveys, nine household budget surveys and 11 health behaviour surveys) representing 15 European countries were selected based on criteria developed as part of the study. Association between educational level and consumption of vegetables and fruits was registered for each study and common conclusions were identified. Results: In the majority of the studies, with the exception of a few in southern and eastern Europe, consumption of vegetables and fruits was more common among those with higher education. The results suggest that in regions where consumption of vegetables and fruits is more common, the lower social classes tend to consume more of these than the higher social classes. Conclusions: The differences in the patterns of disparities in vegetable and fruit consumption between regions, as well as within populations, need to be considered when efforts to improve nutrition and health are planned.

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ObjectiveLittle is known about the potential health effects of eating organic food either in the general population or during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to examine associations between organic food consumption during pregnancy and the risk of pre-eclampsia among nulliparous Norwegian women.DesignProspective cohort study.SettingNorway, years 2002–2008.Participants28 192 pregnant women (nulliparous, answered food frequency questionnaire and general health questionnaire in mid-pregnancy and no missing information on height, body weight or gestational weight gain).Main outcome measureRelative risk was estimated as ORs by performing binary logistic regression with pre-eclampsia as the outcome and organic food consumption as the exposure.ResultsThe prevalence of pre-eclampsia in the study sample was 5.3% (n=1491). Women who reported to have eaten organic vegetables ‘often’ or ‘mostly’ (n=2493, 8.8%) had lower risk of pre-eclampsia than those who reported ‘never/rarely’ or ‘sometimes’ (crude OR=0.76, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.96; adjusted OR=0.79, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.99). The lower risk associated with high organic vegetable consumption was evident also when adjusting for overall dietary quality, assessed as scores on a healthy food pattern derived by principal component analysis. No associations with pre-eclampsia were found for high intake of organic fruit, cereals, eggs or milk, or a combined index reflecting organic consumption.ConclusionsThese results show that choosing organically grown vegetables during pregnancy was associated with reduced risk of pre-eclampsia. Possible explanations for an association between pre-eclampsia and use of organic vegetables could be that organic vegetables may change the exposure to pesticides, secondary plant metabolites and/or influence the composition of the gut microbiota.

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Objective: To assess differences in cheese and milk consumption across socioeconomic groups in representative samples from several European countries. Design: A meta-analysis of published and unpublished surveys of food habits performed in nine European countries between 1985 and 1999. Educational and occupational levels were used as indicators of socio-economic status. Results: A higher socioeconomic status was associated with a greater consumption of cheese. The pooled estimate of the difference in cheese consumption between women in the highest vs the lowest educational level was 9.0 g/day (95% CI: 7.1 to 11.0). The parallel observation in men was 6.8 g/day (95% CI: 3.4 to 10.1). Similar results were obtained using occupation as an indicator of socioeconomic status. The pooled estimates of the higher cheese consumption among subjects belonging to the highest (vs the lowest) occupational level were 5.1 g/day (95% CI: 3.7 to 6.5) in women and 4.6 g/day (95% CI: 2.1 to 7.0) in men. No statistically significant associations were found for milk consumption concerning educational or occupational level. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that consumption of cheese is likely to be higher among subjects belonging to higher socioeconomic levels. We did not find enough evidence to support that milk intake is different according to educational or social levels. Sponsorship: FAIR-program of the European Union (project,.