Don’t cheat on the vegetables: make sure they’re fresh, not processed

Eating plenty of fresh vegetables is good for our heart—but don’t cheat.  If your plant-based diet is processed, you’re increasing your risk of heart disease by as much as 40 percent.

The importance of fresh vegetables as nature intended is underlined in a new study that discovered any benefits disappear if the plant-based food in your diet has been processed.

Those who ate a diet that included plenty of fresh vegetables were 40 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD), researchers at the Sorbonne University in Paris discovered when they tracked the diets and health of 63,835 adults for an average of nine years.

But those who ate processed vegetables—such as preprepared soups, ready-made pasta dishes, or commercially prepared salads with dressing—didn’t reduce their CVD risk.

And those who also ate other processed foods, such as crisps, sweetened fruit drinks or sodas made from plant extracts, chocolate-based sweets or confectionery, sugary breakfast cereals, and savoury biscuits, were 40 percent more likely to develop heart disease.

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