Eating Fruits, Vegetables Lowers Heart Disease Risk

November 03, 2004
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston say eating fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of developing heart disease but not cancer.
For their study, researchers analyzed data from over 100,000 participants who completed a survey on their medical history, lifestyle and diet. The participants were followed from 1984 to 1998.
Among those eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, the researchers found no link to a lower cancer risk, however, an association with a slightly decreased risk of heart disease was found.

"The benefits appeared to be primarily for cardiovascular disease and not for cancer," the researchers wrote.
Among vegetables, those most closely related to lowering the risk of heart disease were green, leafy vegetables.
"The protective effect of fruit and vegetable intake may have been overstated," wrote the researchers. However, "our findings for cardiovascular disease still support the recommendations of the American Heart Association of consuming at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day."
The findings are published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute