A study in the American Heart Association journal Circulation has found that eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day could reduce your risk of death by 13%. Researchers examined data from more than 100,000 men and women from the mid-1980s until 2014. Participants were asked about their diet at the beginning of the study, and again every two to four years. At the end of that time period, 33,898 of the participants had died. It was found that people who ate two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables every day had the lowest chances of death. However, eating more than five total servings a day was not associated with any lower risk.
Compared to eating just two servings of fruit and vegetables a day, people who ate five servings were 10% less likely to die from cancer, 12% less likely to die from heart disease, 35% less likely to die from respiratory disease, and 13% less likely to die from all causes. The researchers also combined their data with the results from 24 other studies to look at a total of 1.9 million people from 29 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania, North America and South America. They again found that people who ate five servings of fruit and vegetables a day had a 13% lower risk of death from any cause. However, lead author Dr. Dong Wang said that while most health advice treats all fruits and vegetables the same, the research found that some types have greater benefits than others. In particular, starchy vegetables such as peas, corn and potatoes were not associated with a lower risk of death — and neither were fruit juices. The researchers wrote that past studies had actually connected potatoes and fruit juice to gaining weight and diabetes.
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