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Lucky number seven

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Lucky number seven

People should aim to eat at least seven portions of fruit and vegetables a day to significantly reduce their risk of death from any cause, although any amount is better than none, researchers have advised.

Using data from the Health Survey for England, a research team from University College London studied the eating habits of over 65,000 people and found that the more fruit and vegetables they ate, the less likely they were to die at any age. Compared with a diet free from greens, the risk of death dropped by 14 per cent for those eating one portion of fruit and vegetables per day, by 29 per cent for three to five portions and by 36 per cent for five to seven portions. However, chomping through seven or more servings of fruit and vegetables each day reduced the overall death risk by 42 per cent. The research also found that vegetables have many more health benefits than fruit.

“We all know that eating fruit and vegetables is healthy, but the size of the effect is staggering,” said Dr Oyinlola Oyebode of UCL’s department of epidemiology and public health. “The clear message here is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to die at any age.”

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