Statistics Canada says Canadians are eating fewer fruits and vegetables for the first time in a decade, according to its latest analysis of the country's state of health.

In its latest Canadian Community Health Survey, Statistics Canada reports that just 43 per cent of Canadians aged 12 and older ate fruit or vegetables more than five times a day in 2010. That's down from 46 per cent the year before.

Broken down by gender, the survey found that half of all women reached for fruit and vegetables five or more times daily compared with just 36 per cent of men.

The data is based on an ongoing survey of 65,000 Canadians on a gamut of more than 30 health indicators.

Other highlights from the latest edition of the annual snapshot include:

• Six in 10 Canadians reported their own state of health as very good or excellent.
• Canadians nevertheless reported a slight increase in their daily stress levels, with 24 per cent describing most days are either extremely or quite stressful. That was up two percentage points from 2008.
• The number of Canadians whose height and weight categorizes them as obese under Health Canada guidelines was virtually unchanged from the year before, at approximately 4.5 million or 18 per cent of the overall population.
• For the first time, Statistics Canada found the same number of women as men reporting they had been diagnosed with hypertension. Overall, nearly 1 in 6 Canadians said they had high blood pressure.
• One-in-eight of the 15 per cent of Canadians who said they had no regular medical doctor, reported easy access to alternative medical care such as a walk-in clinic.
• Among the 21 per cent, or 6 million Canadians who said they were either daily or occasional smokers, more men (24 per cent) lit up in 2010 than in the year before. The number of women smokers fell two percentage points, however, to 17 per cent in 2010.

In its bulletin announcing the results online Tuesday, Statistics Canada suggested the trend among women may continue, and indeed spread to men in the coming years as well.

"Since people typically begin smoking during their teenage years, the percentage who had not started smoking by age 20 is an indicator of future smoking rates," StatsCan wrote, noting that 57 per cent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 said they had never smoked.

That's up from 41 per cent in 2003.

And the same holds for young men too, 45 per cent of whom reported no prior experience with tobacco.

That also represents "a considerable increase" from the 37 per cent of young men who said the same in 2003.

Although the survey captures data from Canadians in every province and territory, Residents of Indian reserves, health care institutions, some remote areas and full-time members of the Canadian Forces are not included.