If people eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, this is linked to an increased life expectancy. Ideally, two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables should be consumed daily for a longer life, but it should be noted that not all types of fruit and vegetables have the same health benefits.
Consuming a lot of fruit and vegetables regularly reduces the likelihood of various dangerous chronic diseases, which is associated with a lower risk of premature death, reports a research team from the internationally renowned Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in the English-language journal ” Circulation ” .
Unhealthy diets lead to dangerous diseases
The diet we eat is known to have a major impact on health. If people consume unhealthy foods regularly, it worsens their overall health. Once health is impaired, this can also have a detrimental effect on life expectancy through the development of dangerous diseases.
Observe a healthy diet
People should therefore pay attention to a healthy diet in order to protect their health and possibly even to extend their own lifespan. The results of two large cohort studies on nutrition show that consuming enough fruit and vegetables on a daily basis has beneficial effects on life expectancy, reports the research team.
Fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of cancer
If people eat a lot of fruit and vegetables every day, this reduces the risk of various cardiovascular diseases and cancer, for example . The results of the two studies, in which almost two million people took part, suggest that consuming five servings of fruit and vegetables a day is associated with the lowest risk of premature death, the researchers report.
Of course, one could assume that the motto more helps more also applies to healthy eating. This, however, was not the case. The experts found that eating more than five servings of fruits and vegetables did not add any benefit to life expectancy.
Risk of premature death was reduced by 13 percent
Compared to people who only ate two servings of fruit and vegetables per day, participants in the studies who ate five servings of fruit and vegetables a day had a 13 percent lower risk of premature death, according to the researchers.
More precisely: These participants with a high consumption of fruit and vegetables died 12 percent less often from cardiovascular diseases and ten percent less often from cancer. In addition, the risk of premature death from a respiratory disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) was 35 percent lower, the team reports.
Not every vegetable increases life expectancy?
According to the experts, however, it should be noted that not all fruit and vegetables have the same benefits for life expectancy. No reduction in the risk of premature death was observed for vegetables that contain a lot of starch, such as potatoes and corn, or for fruit juices.
Which fruits and vegetables improve life expectancy?
If, on the other hand, people want to improve their life expectancy, they should eat a lot of green leafy vegetables. This includes, for example, spinach, kale and lettuce. Eating fruits and vegetables high in beta-carotene and vitamin C also has a beneficial effect on life span. Fruits and vegetables high in beta-carotene and vitamin C include, for example, berries, carrots and citrus fruits, add the researchers.
