By Staff Writer - March, 30th 2014

“Eat your fruits and vegetables” is one of the tried and true recommendations for a healthy diet. And for good reason. Eating plenty of vegetables and fruits can help you ward off heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure, prevent some types of cancer, avoid a painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis, and guard against cataract and macular degeneration, two common causes of vision loss.

Natural Health News — Turning your 5-a-day into 7-a-day improves health and significantly reduces your risk of premature death compared to eating less than one portion, according to a new study.

Researchers at University College London used data from the annual Health Survey for England to study the eating habits of 65,226 people representative of the English population between 2001 and 2013, and found that even after adjusting for other risk factors the more fruit and vegetables they ate, the less likely they were to die prematurely.

Compared to eating less than one portion of fruit and vegetables, the risk of death by any cause is reduced by 14% by eating one to three portions, 29% for three to five portions, 36% for five to seven portions and 42% for seven or more.

Eating seven or more portions reduces the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25% and …

Vegetables and fruits are clearly an important part of a good diet. Almost everyone can benefit from eating more of them, but variety is as important as quantity. No single fruit or vegetable provides all of the nutrients you need to be healthy. The key lies in the variety of different vegetables and fruits that you eat.

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