Study: More Than Five-a-Day has No Additional Benefits

30 Jul 2014 --- The UK’s five-a-day target for fruit and vegetables is sufficient, according to research, but eating more may not provide any additional benefits. A report published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) analysed 16 worldwide studies, and the results suggested that for each portion of fruit and vegetables consumer, there was a lower risk of premature death.

The study also found though that after five portion, there was no further impact. This goes against recent calls from health campaigners for the quota to be increased to at least seven a day.

Current NHS guidance in the UK is to eat five 80g portions of fruit and vegetables a day (based on advice from the World Health Organization), but the majority of the population has not been reaching this target. The average achieved nationally is thought to be around four a day.

The 16 studies on this subject covered analysis reports in the US, Asia and Europe involving more than 833,000 people, of whom 56,000 died during the follow-up period.

The average risk of death fell by 5% for every extra serving, up to five a day, but not beyond, according to the overall results of the studies. Researchers found eating more fruit and vegetables was linked with a lower risk of dying from any cause but it had particularly positive links to cardiovascular disease.

“This analysis provides further evidence that a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality particularly cardiovascular mortality,” said a spokesman for the research team.