Tag Archives: fruit and vegetable

Five a day would save thousands of lives

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At least 33,000 lives could be saved each year if the nation ate more healthily, claim researchers.

Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day would by itself prevent 15,000 early deaths, ­including 7,000 from coronary heart disease, almost 5,000 from cancer and more than 3,000 from stroke.

Increasing dietary fibre would save another 4,000 lives, the study from Oxford University suggests, while watching fat intake would save almost 7,000, and another 7,500 early deaths would be prevented by reducing salt consumption.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, analysed deaths from coronary heart disease, stroke and cancers, figures on food and nutrient intake, and studies on the influence of diet on illness and early death for 2005 to 2007.

The UK’s nutritional goals and guidelines are for people to eat 440g of fruit and vegetables every day and 18g of fibre.

Fruit and vegetables

Fruit and vegetables

A third of the total number of calories should come from fat but saturated fat should make up only ten per cent. People should also consume no more than 6g of salt a day.

However, the researchers found no country in the UK fully meets the criteria, with Scotland and Northern Ireland doing the worst.


In fact, figures earlier this year showed that Britons were actually becoming less likely to eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables. Only about a third of Britons are thought to hit the five-a-day target.

Oxford’s Dr Peter Scarborough, who led the latest research, said: ‘Meeting dietary recommendations would have a massive effect on the health of the nation.

‘According to our model, the ­biggest impact would be eating more fruit and veg.’

Victoria Taylor, senior dietician of the British Heart Foundation, which co-funded the study, said: ‘By eating more fruit and vegetables there is less room in your diet for other foods that might not be great for your heart.’

Britons need to eat more fruit and veg

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Britons are not eating enough fruit and vegetables despite nutritional advice being widely available, a study suggests.

A review of eating habits in 19 EU countries put the UK in 14th place.

The analysis was carried out by the European Food Information Council (EUFIC).

It says that on average, Britons eat 258g (9.1oz) of fruit and vegetables a day, compared with a European average of 386g (13.6oz).

The UK average also falls short of the 400g (14.1oz) minimum consumption recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Only four European countries met this target: Poland (577g), Italy (452g), Germany (442g) and Austria (413g).

The EUFIC report said: “A majority of Europeans do not reach WHO recommendations on vegetables and fruit consumption.

“Consumption varies, with higher intakes in southern compared to the northern regions.”

Fruit and vegetables

Fruit and vegetables

The EUFIC said that high intakes of fruit and vegetables were associated with a lower risk of chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.

The report also acknowledges that the definition of fruit and vegetables varies between countries with, for example, some nations not including potatoes or fruit juice.


The body used data from various governments to compile its report, but said it recognised the statistics were often not directly comparable.

“Varying definitions of which foods belong to fruit and vegetables present a barrier to comparing data from different studies,” it said. ”

“Given that many national authorities regularly perform surveys of fruit and vegetable intake, standardising the survey methodology would vastly improve data comparability across different countries.”