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Fruits and Vegetables and Chronic Disease Risk

Dietary recommendations call for the consumption of at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day to reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. However, the data supporting these recommendations have come mainly from case-control studies. Hung et al. (p. 1577) investigated the association between fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of major chronic disease by analyzing data from two large prospective cohorts with more than a decade of follow up. For men and women combined, participants in the highest quintile of total fruit and vegetable intake had a modest and statistically non-significant reduction in the risk of major chronic disease. Increased fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease but not with a reduction in risk of cancer. The authors note that their results support the dietary recommendations but suggest that the cancer-protective effect of fruits and vegetables may have been overestimated.