10 Portions of Fruit and Veggies Linked to Longer Lives

How many servings of fruit and vegetables do you consume in a typical day? It's no secret that most people fall short of their daily recommended allowance for fruit and veggies. As such, they place themselves at a greater risk for disease like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions. Furthermore, there's new evidence suggesting that people who consume fruit and vegetables in their daily diet live longer their counterparts.

Researchers from the Imperial College of London found that consuming 10 portions of fruit and vegetables per day could prevent up to 7.8 million premature deaths. More specifically, they found that consuming 200 grams or just 2.5 servings of fruit and vegetables, reduces the risk of early death from heart disease by 16%, stroke by 18%, cardiovascular disease by 13%, cancer by 4%, and overall premature death from all causes by 15%.

Researchers further added, however, that eating up to 800 grams of fruit and vegetables -- the equivalent of 10 portions -- was linked to a 24% reduces risk of heart disease, a 33% reduced risk of stroke, a 28% reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, a 13% reduces risk of cancer, and a 31% reduced risk of premature death from all causes.

These findings attest to the importance of eating your fruit and vegetables, especially if you want to live a long and healthy life. But researchers were quick to note than some fruits and vegetables offered greater health benefits than others. Apples, pears, leafy greens, citrus fruits, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower offered the highest benefits in terms of preventing heart disease and stroke.

Dietary supplements, on the other hand, offered the least benefit in terms of protection against heart disease and stroke.

So, how did researchers come to these conclusions? Their findings weren't based on a single study, but rather a total of 95 studies involving approximately 2 million men and women throughout the world. This data also included analyses from 43,000 heart disease cases, 47,000 stroke cases, 81,000 cardiovascular cases, 112,000 cancer cancer, and some 94,000 deaths.

The bottom line is that fruits and vegetables are an important part of a nutritious, well-balanced diet. And excluding them -- or not eating enough of them -- can increase your risk of many diseases and even early death.

"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, 10 a day is even better,” said Dr Dagfinn Aune, lead author of the research from the School of Public Health at Imperial.