The Fruit & Veg Mountain

There I was, on the cusp of something extroadinary, a grand shift in the dietary habits I’d acquired over a lifetime. The goal to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day: the Holy Grail of healthy eating. And I was so near to my goals; I was up to three portions a day. And then it happened.  An apocalyptic turn of events occurred, dashing my hopes against the wall. We must DOUBLE are 5 a day intake of fruit and veg in order to stave of illnesses. The cruelty of this blow is hard to put into words. Would it be an exaggeration to say this is akin to being in striking distance of K2’s summit, only to be told someone has added another 
10,000 feet?! Probably.

So why the change? Needless to say there has been research to back up these findings. And so it can’t be argued, alas. The research, which involved a 12-year study, also found that vegetables were four times healthier than fruit. Or if you prefer, fruit are four times more useless than vegetables.

So this increase in our fruit and vegetable intake, it should be mentioned, is about significantly lowering the risk of premature death. People who ate at least seven portions of fruit and vegetables each day were 42 per cent less likely to die from any cause over the course of the study. The researchers also discovered that canned and frozen fruit increased the risk of dying by 17 per cent. Yes, I had to do a double take on this. It is perhaps worth repeating: canned and frozen fruit INCREASED the risk of dying by 17 per cent. Death by canned peaches? Fruit juice was found to have no significant benefit. And there goes the easy option. Onward and upward...

Nigel Prestatyn