We all know that eating your ‘five a day’ is good for you’ – but it may not be enough to reduce your cardiovascular risk, according to a new study.
Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Bristol in the UK and the Chinese University of Hong Kong asked nearly 400,000 people taking part in the UK Biobank study to fill in a questionnaire about their diet, including the quantity of cooked and raw vegetables they ate each day.
People said, on average, they ate two heaped tablespoons of raw vegetables, three of cooked vegetables and five in total per day.
Their health, and any heart problems that led to hospital treatment or death, was then tracked over the next 12 years.
CVD risk for vegie lovers dropped 15 per cent
The results found the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was around 15 per cent lower for those eating the most vegetables, particularly those eating lots of raw veggies, compared to those eating the least.
However, the researchers said this could all be explained by other factors, including people’s lifestyles; for example: whether they smoked and how much alcohol they drank, their jobs, incomes and overall diet.
As a result, the researchers said their study did not find evidence of “a protective effect of vegetable intake” on how often heart and circulatory problems occurred.
“Eating a balanced diet and maintaining a healthy weight remains an important part of maintaining good health and reducing risk of major diseases, including some cancers,” said co-author Dr Ben Lacey.
Good to know.
