Fruit and veg consumption tied to lower risk of all-cause mortality

Source: www.canadianhealthcarenetwork.ca
by Gillian Wansbrough
Date: December 17, 2014

A meta-analysis is providing more evidence that a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, particularly cardiovascular mortality.

Researchers conducted a literature search, up to August 2013, to examine and quantify the potential dose-response relation between fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality.

The risk of cardiovascular mortality was decreased by 4% for each serving a day.

The study was led by Xia Wang, a nutrition instructor with the Department of Maternal and Child Health Care in the School of Public Health at Shandong University in Jinan, China, and colleagues in China and the U.S.

Sixteen prospective cohort studies were deemed eligible. During followup periods ranging from four to 26 years there were 56,423 deaths among 833,234 participants: 11,512 from cardiovascular disease and 16,817 from cancer. Higher consumption of fruit and vegetables was significantly associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality.

“The risk of all-cause mortality was decreased by 5% for each additional serving a day of fruit and vegetables, by 6% for fruit consumption and by 5% for vegetable consumption.

We observed a threshold at around five servings a day, after which there was no further reduction in risk,” write the researchers.

A significant inverse association was observed for cardiovascular mortality, while higher consumption of fruit and vegetables was not appreciably associated with risk of cancer mortality. The risk of cardiovascular mortality was decreased by 4% for each serving a day of the combined consumption of fruit and vegetables, by 5% for fruit, and by 4% for vegetables.

As to the mechanism involved, the authors indicate that antioxidant compounds and polyphenols in fruit and vegetables, such as vitamin C, carotenoids, and flavonoids, have been shown to prevent the oxidation of cholesterol and other lipids in the arteries and to increase the formation of endothelial prostacyclin that inhibits platelet aggregation and reduces vascular tone.

The authors conclude that the results support current recommendations to increase fruit and vegetable consumption to promote health and overall longevity.

The findings were published in the British Medical Journal.

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