It’s hardly shocking to hear that you should eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, but a new study is breaking down exactly how many you need of each to live longer.
Currently, the American Heart Association recommends having four servings of fruit a day and five servings of vegetables a day. A serving can include a medium piece of fruit, a 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen fruits or vegetables and a cup of raw leafy vegetables. However, this study, which was published in the journal Circulation, analyzed data from 66,719 women from the Nurses’ Health Study and 42,016 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and compared it with information on fruit and vegetable intake and death from 26 studies. After analyzing the data, the researchers found that having five servings of a combination of fruits and vegetables a day was linked to a longer life span.
The researchers got even more specific with the recommendations, noting that having three servings of vegetables plus two servings of fruit – for a total of five servings daily – is ideal. When compared to people who had just two servings of fruit and vegetables a day, those who had five servings a day had a 13 percent lower risk of death from any cause, a 12 percent lower risk of death from heart disease, a 10 percent lower risk of death from cancer and a 35 percent lower risk of death from respiratory disease.
Based on their findings, though, having more than five servings of fruits and vegetables a day won’t extend your life span any further. And, the findings point out, not all fruits and vegetables are created equal. The researchers discovered that vegetables like peas, corn and potatoes were not linked with a longer lifespan, due to their higher starch and calorie content. And bad news for juice lovers: the study found that fruit juice also doesn’t count, probably due to the higher concentration of sugars and less fiber. In fact, fruit juice and potatoes specifically got called out in the conclusion, with the researchers writing, “These findings support current dietary recommendations to increase intake of fruits and vegetables, but not fruit juice and potatoes.” Ouch.
So, what are some of the fruits and veggies that give the most bang for their nutritional buck? Spinach, lettuce, kale and carrots are aces in the vegetables category, while berries and citrus fruits got high marks in the fruit department. Why more veggies than fruits in the equation? “Vegetables tend to be more nutrient-dense than fruit — more nutrients, fewer calories — and are especially high in nutrients that many people miss out on, like folate, iron, magnesium, calcium and potassium,” says Mary Cochran, a registered dietitian with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “It would make sense that if people eat more vegetables, they are getting a higher concentration of these important nutrients, which could lead to improved health outcomes.”
Vegetables also “tend to have more fiber and less sugar” than fruits, registered dietitian Sonya Angelone, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “They also tend to have certain compounds that promote health,” she says. “Plus, fiber feeds the good gut bacteria that produce more compounds to improve health and reduce risk for disease.”
If you struggle to get more fruits and vegetables in your diet, there are some tricks you can try:
- Build your dish around the veggies. Make something like a salad the centerpiece.
- Try buying pre-chopped and easy-to-eat items when you can, like broccoli florets or baby carrots, so you minimize prep time.
- Slip vegetables like spinach or kale into soups and sauces to increase your intake.
- Keep produce out and visible is also important.
- Get in the habit of having a crudité platter or vegetables as an appetizer and fruit with your dessert.
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