Premature Death: Reduce Your Risk by 31%

Add 3.4 Disease-Free Years To Your Life

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

If you could reduce your risk of:

Heart Disease (primarily heart attack) by 24%,
Stroke by 33%,
Cancer by 14%
Premature death by 31% (That would add approximately 3.4 years of disease-free years to your lifespan),

Would you be interested in knowing more?

What if you could enjoy all these benefits:

Without it costing you an extra penny?
Without any side effects?
And you felt great?

Would you like to know the secret? The secret is a diet rich in fruits and vegetables – probably a lot more fruits and vegetables than you are currently eating. Let’s look at the evidence.

How Was The Study Done?

You may be saying “That’s not news. I’ve heard that before.” Yes, there have probably been hundreds of clinical studies looking at the benefits of diets rich in fruits and vegetables. There have also been several meta-analyses that have combined the data from many individual studies to improve that statistical power of their conclusions.

However, this study (Aune et al, International Journal of Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyw319 ) is unique.

It is the largest and most comprehensive meta-analysis looking at the benefits of fruit & vegetable consumption ever undertaken.

It analyzed 142 published clinical studies with over 2.1 million subjects from around the globe.
There were 43,000 cases of heart disease, 47,000 cases of stroke, 112,000 cases of cancer, and 94,000 deaths in these studies.

It had enough statistical power to determine even minor effects of fruit and vegetable intake.

It is the first meta-analysis with enough data to accurately determine the optimal intake of fruits and vegetables.

For most of the health outcomes examined in this study, the optimal intake of fruits and vegetables was 10 servings a day. When they compared people who were consuming 10 servings a day to people who were consuming less than one serving a day,

Heart disease was reduced by 28%.
Stroke was reduced by 33%.
Premature death was decreased by 31%.
The fruits and vegetables most strongly associated with this benefit were apples, pears, citrus fruit, green leafy vegetables, and cruciferous vegetables.

For cancer, the optimal intake of fruits and vegetables was 6 servings a day. When they compared people who were consuming 6 servings a day to people who were consuming less than one serving a day,

Cancer was reduced by 14%.
The fruits and vegetables most strongly associated with reduced cancer risk were green vegetables such as green beans, yellow vegetables such as peppers and carrots, and cruciferous vegetables.

The authors speculated that the relatively small reduction in cancer risk they observed may have been because they were looking at total cancer cases rather than looking at individual cancers. Previous studies have suggested that fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of some cancers much more than others.

Finally, the authors estimated that:

6 million premature deaths/year worldwide could be prevented if people consumed 6 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, and…
8 million premature deaths/year worldwide could be prevented if people consumed 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

What Does This Mean For You?

When the USDA rolled out the “Food Guide Pyramid” in 1992, they recommended 2-4 servings of fruit and 3-5 servings of vegetables a day. They tried educating the American public for almost a decade to no avail. Only 3% of Americans even came close to that recommendation.

In 2011 they threw in the towel and introduced “My Plate”, which recommended 5 servings (2 fruits and 3 vegetables). This is also the current recommendation of the WHO and England. “How well are we doing with this recommendation?”, you might ask.

The answer is “not very well.” The bad news is the CDC estimates that less than 13% of Americans eat 2 servings of fruit and 2-3 servings of vegetables a day. An average American eats one serving of fruit a day and less than 2 servings of vegetables a day. Clearly, we have a long way to go.

My guess is that only vegans come close to the recommended 10 servings a day, and that’s only if they skimp on beans, nuts, and grains so they can load up on fruits and vegetables.

The good news is every added serving of fruits and vegetables is beneficial. The authors of the study estimate that for every increase of 2.5 servings a day:

Heart disease would be reduced by 8%
Stroke would be reduced by 13%
Cancer would be reduced by 3%.
Premature death would be reduced by 10%

If we were to increase our intake of fruits and vegetables to even 6 servings a day:

Heart disease would be reduced by 16%
Stroke would be reduced by 22%
Cancer would be reduced by 13%.
Premature death would be reduced by 27%.

What About Supplementation?

The authors of the study stated: “Most likely it is the whole package of beneficial nutrients you obtain by eating fruits and vegetables that is crucial to health. This is why it is important to eat whole plant foods to get the benefit, instead of taking antioxidant or vitamin supplements…”

I agree in principle. It is impossible to duplicate the myriad of nutrients found in whole foods in a supplement. More importantly, we can do better. We should all work towards increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables in our diet.

However,

When there is such a huge gap between what Americans are eating and the optimal intake of fruits and vegetables, and…
The USDA has tried for decades to get Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables without success, and…
We know many of the beneficial nutrients found in those fruits and vegetables…

Supplementation also makes sense. Choose a company that you can trust and try to fill the gap between what you need and what you are getting from your diet. And, increase your intake of fruits and vegetables to decrease your risk of premature death.

The Bottom Line

A new meta-analysis that combined the data from 142 published clinical studies with over 2.1 million subjects has concluded that increasing our intake of fruits and vegetables to 10 servings a day would:
- Reduce heart disease (primarily heart attacks) by 24%.
- Reduce strokes by 33%.
- Reduce cancer by 14%.
- Reduce premature death by 31% (That would add approximately 3.4 years of disease-free years to your lifespan).
- Result in 7.8 million fewer premature deaths/year worldwide.
The bad news is that:
- The CDC estimates that less than 13% of Americans eat even 2 servings of fruit and 2-3 servings of vegetables a day.
- The CDC also estimates that the average American eats one serving of fruit and less than 2 servings of vegetables per day.
My guess is that only vegans come close to the recommended 10 servings a day, and that’s only if they skimp on beans, nuts, and grains so they can load up on fruits and vegetables.
The good news is every added serving of fruits and vegetables is beneficial. The authors of the study estimate that for every increase of 2.5 servings a day:
- Heart disease would be reduced by 8%
- Stroke would be reduced by 13%
- Cancer would be reduced by 3%.
- Premature death would be reduced by 10%
We can do better. We should all work towards increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables in our diet.
However,
- When there is such a huge gap between what Americans are eating and the optimal intake of fruits and vegetables, and…
- The USDA has tried for decades to get Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables without success, and…
- We know many of the beneficial nutrients found in those fruits and vegetables…
Supplementation also makes sense. Choose a company that you can trust and try to fill the gap between what you need and what you are getting from your diet.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.