Do you really need to eat ten portions of fruit and veg a day?
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Geoff Webb, University of East London
Only a quarter of UK adults manage to eat the officially recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. In fact, almost half eat less than three a day. It seems unlikely, then, that most people would be able to reach the ten a day suggested by several pieces of research published in the last few years.
Most recently, a paper in the International Journal of Epidemiology laid out evidence that upping your intake of fruit and veg to ten portions (800g) a day would further reduce your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and premature death. But how strong is this evidence, and how practical is this advice for most individuals or society as a whole? A closer look suggests we need to be cautious about turning this complex research into simple and useful recommendations.
The five-a-day mantra goes back to recommendations from the World Health Organisation in 1990 and numerous developed countries have adopted it as official advice. Since t...
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