More vegetables than fruit in the five-a-day

Official health guidance tells us to eat five portions of fruits and vegetables a day. Although the amount is absurdly low, should we eat more fruit than vegetables, or the other way round?

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), vegetables are more health-giving than fruit, and so they should be making up the majority of our five-a-day servings.

Researchers at Harvard University, commissioned by the AHA, looked at the results of the Nurses’ Health Study, which had tracked the health and diets of more than 100,000 nurses for 30 years. They added to that the results from 26 other studies that had included nearly 2 million participants.

In their findings, the researchers discovered:

• People who ate at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day were also the least likely to die prematurely;
• The people who lived the longest ate three portions of vegetables, and two of fruit;
• Not all vegetables help us maintain health. Starchy vegetables, such as peas and corn, fruit juices and potatoes, had no positive effect;
• The green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce and kale, and the citrus fruits, including berries, had the biggest positive impact on health.

At least half our plates of food should be made up of vegetables, the Harvard researchers added.

Although the five-a-day guideline doesn’t set the bar very high, only around 10 percent of adults are following it.

(Source: Circulation 2021; doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.048996)