Other lifestyle factors have more of an impact on heart attacks and strokes, a large UK study suggests.
Vegetables may be good for you, but eating a lot of them is unlikely to reduce your risk of a heart attack or stroke, a large UK study suggests.
Eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day is recommended by health advisers, including the NHS. Their health, and any heart problems that led to hospital treatment or death, was then tracked over the next 12 years.Although the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was around 15% lower for those eating the most vegetables - particularly those eating lots of raw veg - compared with those eating the least, the researchers said this could all be explained by other factors.
But Prof Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said there was "good trial evidence" that eating foods rich in fibre such as vegetables, "can help lower weight and improve levels of risk factors known to cause heart disease". "In fact, I suspect we may have underestimated the importance of a healthy diet on health and disease in general," he added., fruit and veg are a good source of vitamins, such as folate, and minerals, such as potassium