Eating 7 or More Portions of Fruits & Vegetables Per Day Decreases Risk of Death by 42%

<p><b>The Fountain of Youth</b> has been found - not by a renegade archaeologist - by university researchers. How much does it cost to stave off death's icy hand? About $1.45 per pound.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">A recent study published in the Journal of of Epidemiology &amp; Community Health by researchers from the University College London (UCL) shows that eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables per day <b>reduces your risk of death at any point in time by 42%</b> compared to eating zero portions.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The findings show that the more fruit and vegetables people ate, the less likely they were to die at any age. Eating seven or more portions reduced the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25% and 31% respectively. Interestingly, vegetables were found to have a significantly higher health benefit than fruit.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0414/010413-fruit-veg-consumption-death-risk" target="_new"> Click Here to View a Report About the Study from UCL </a><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We all know that eating fruit and vegetables is healthy, but the size of the effect is staggering," says Dr Oyinlola Oyebode of UCL's Department of Epidemiology &amp; Public Health, lead author of the study. "The clear message here is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to die at any age. Vegetables have a larger effect than fruit, but fruit still makes a real difference. If you're happy to snack on carrots or other vegetables, then that is a great choice but if you fancy something sweeter, a banana or any fruit will also do you good."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">This is the very first study to link fruit and vegetable consumption with all causes including cancer and heart disease, across a nationally-representative population, as well as the first to measure health benefits per portion.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">From 2001-2013, researchers studied the eating habits of more than 65,000 people, which were said to be representative of the English population. The data was collected as part of the Health Survey for England.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">This is great news for the fresh produce industry. The marketing possibilities are endless. As consumers seek to live longer, healthier lives, sales volumes should hopefully see a marked increase.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><b>Will you live forever?</b> I cannot say, but the next time you're hit by a taxi cab in Vancouver in broad daylight, you probably didn't eat enough fresh produce.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">