So maybe you're not the biggest fan of the food pyramid (there is a clear biased against our favourite foods) but getting five or more pieces of fruit and vegetables a day can lower your risk of dying by 42%.
A new survey published in the
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health has confirmed that the more fruits and vegetables the participants of a trial ate, the less likely they were to die at any age, and the protective benefit increased with consumption.
Of those who ate just one portion of fruit and vegetables a day, the risk of death by any cause was reduced by 14%, for those eating one to three portions; 29%, three to five portions fared even stronger with 36% and five to seven portions a day topped the health benefits of the survey with reductions of 42%.
Those who scored in the top tier of the survey, eating seven or more portions, also specifically reduced the risk of dying from cancer by 25%, and heart disease by 31%.
The study is also the first to associate eating fruits and vegetables with all-cause, cancer and heart-disease deaths in a nationally representative population, and to quantify the benefits by portions.
