A new survey has revealed that most of the modern parents in Britain believe that chips are a healthy vegetable.

The survey of 1000 sets of parents has shown that nearly 50 percent of the parents are ignorant of basic nutrition and don’t realise that greens cooked as part of a meal count as a portion of vegetable

Though many people considered potatoes to be a vegetable, they did not contain as many nutrients as other vegetables and were more correctly associated with starches such as rice and pasta.

According to the survey led by Department of Health more than a third of said that they believed that a baked potato counted as a portion of vegetables.

Another five per cent identified chips as a vegetable.

Azmina Govindji, from the British Dietetic Association, said there was strong evidence that eating enough fruit and vegetables could reduce the risk of contracting certain diseases, including cancer.

“There is a lot of research which shows that eating 400 grams, or five portions, of fruit and vegetables every day can reduce your risk of certain types of cancer and of coronary heart disease,” Telegraph quoted Govindji, as saying.

“More widely, eating lots of fruit and vegetables is linked to a lower risk of being obese, which can accuse many problems, not least diseases like diabetes,” she added.

Another 8 out of 10 parents under the age of 34 said that they struggled with the cost of buying fresh fruit and vegetables.

Almost eight out of ten said that frozen fruit and vegetables did not counted towards the Government recommendations of five portions a day.