FEATURED IMAGE Common culinary fruits, Photo Credit Bill Ebbesen via Wikimedia Commons
The key to healthy and longer life may lie in a combination of enough fruit and vegetable intakes, according to latest findings by a team of scientists.
Research carried out by scientists led by Imperial College London researchers, has found from an analysis 95 studies on fruit and vegetable intake that an “intake above five-a-day” of both fruits and vegetables greatly helps in reducing the chance of heart attack, stroke, cancer and early death.
According to findings while five portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces disease risk, “the greatest benefit came from eating 800g a day (roughly equivalent to ten portions – one portion of fruit or vegetables if defined as 80g),” the Imperial College says.
The research marks a “meta-analysis” of all available research in populations worldwide, included up to 2 million people, and assessed up to 43,000 cases of heart disease, 47,000 cases of stroke, 81,000 cases of cardiovascular disease, 112,000 cancer cases and 94,000 deaths.
The research has been published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, and its findings say the team estimate approximately 7.8 million premature deaths worldwide could be potentially prevented every year if people ate 10 portions, or 800 g, of fruit and vegetables a day.
“We wanted to investigate how much fruit and vegetables you need to eat to gain the maximum protection against disease, and premature death. Our results suggest that although five portions of fruit and vegetables is good, ten a day is even better,” Dr Dagfinn Aune, lead author of the research from the School of Public Health at Imperial explained, according to an account posted on the website.
The study finds that even a daily intake of 200g was associated with a 16 per cent reduced risk of heart disease, an 18 per cent reduced risk of stroke, and a 13 per cent reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, the report says.
This amount, which is equivalent to two and a half portions, was also associated with 4 per cent reduced risk in cancer risk, and 15 per cent reduction in the risk of premature death, the Imperial reported.
It also lists some beneifts of eating up to 800g fruit and vegetables a day – or 10 portions –. The intake was found to be associated with:
a 24 per cent reduced risk of heart disease
a 33 per cent reduced risk of stroke
a 28 per cent reduced risk of cardiovascular disease
a 13 per cent reduced risk of total cancer
and a 31 per cent reduction in dying prematurely
