From five pieces to seven . The traditional recommendation to eat five pieces of fruit and vegetables a day has been replaced or, rather, increased, to seven. The reason has been the latest research developed by the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health of the University College London (United Kingdom).
We all know that eating fruits and vegetables is very healthy, but the results of this study confirm figures that are clearly staggering. The team of researchers analyzed the lifestyle data of more than 65,000 randomly selected people aged 35 and over and tracked the deaths recorded among the sample for an average of 7.5 years. During the follow-up period 4,399 people died (6.7% of the total).
Examination of the data revealed that those who ate at least seven daily servings of fruits and vegetables had a 42% lower risk of death from any cause and 25% and 31% less from cancer and cardiovascular disease or stroke. This “protective shield” result seemed to increase the higher the fruit and vegetable intake was.
Another conclusion of the study specified that among consuming fresh fruits or vegetables, vegetables appeared to offer more health benefits than fruit . Eating two or three pieces of vegetables was associated with a 19% lower risk of death, compared to the 10% provided by fruit. In addition, the study advises against the intake of frozen or canned fruit, since this not only does not benefit, but also increases the risk of death by 17% .
The results of the study have been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health .
