It’s recently hit the news that we should now be eating at least seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day due to its health benefits and potentially protective effect against disease.

This claim has come about after a recent study found a strong inverse association between fruit and veg consumption and mortality, seen in up to more than 7 portions per day. This further highlights the importance of fruit and veg as part of a healthy diet, although the government still stand by ‘five a day’ being sufficient.

However, it seems simplistic to conclude that risk of mortality will reduce simply by increasing fruit and veg intake, remember that a strong association doesn’t mean causation. What about the effects of drinking, smoking and a generally unhealthy diet on increasing the risk? Although the study tried to account for some external factors, there are still many confounding variables that may have influenced the results.

Additionally, the study did not identify the effects of different types of fruit and vegetables or the quality of food consumed. Despite this, fresh vegetables were found to have the strongest protective effect (more than salad and fruit), which is no surprise due to their nutrient density. However, this doesn’t mean fruit consumption can be cast aside as it’s still a very important part of our diet.

An interesting point to make from this study is that the average daily portions of fruit and vegetables consumed among participants was only 3.8, showing that the majority of people even struggle to reach five a day. The researchers of this study believe that government recommendations should be reviewed, whilst many have suggested that the Australian approach of two (portions of fruit) plus five (portions of veg) should be adopted.

The most important thing we can take from this study is that most of us are still not eating enough fruit and veg. Personally, I think increasing consumption of fruit and veg can only be a good thing, especially when they are already neglected in the diet. My only concern is that people might give up with their efforts if they are advised that five a day is not enough.

Adie Blanchard – Researcher

References

Oyebode, O., Gordon-Dseagu, V., Walker, A., & Mindell, J. S. (2014). Fruit and vegetable consumption and all-cause, cancer and CVD mortality: analysis of Health Survey for England data. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 1-7.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26818377