The benefits from fruits and vegetables in our diet include lowered risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and more. A new UK study has found a strong link between eating more fruits and vegetables daily and increased longevity. Specifically, the study participants who ate between eating 7 or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day were found to be 42 percent less likely to die at any point in time compared to those who ate less than one portion a day.
The new study was led by Dr. Oyinlola Oyebode at the University College London, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health and she tracked the eating habits of 65,226 British adults aged 35 years or older, for 12 years between 2001 and 2013. Dr. Oyinlola found that the more vegetables and fruits the participants ate, they are less likely to die at any age. This being one of the many benefits from fruits. For example, the study found that the risk of death was decreased by 36 percent with 5 to 7 portions, 29 percent with 3 to 5 portions and 14 percent with 1 to 3 portions.
Keep in mind that the new study does not actually prove that eating 7 or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables causes a lower death risk but the clear message, according to lead author Dr. Oyinlola Oyebode, is that the more fruit and vegetables one eats, the less likely one is to die at any age.
The new study also found that it is better to eat more vegetables than fruits because each additional serving of vegetables consumed was found to be linked to a 16% reduction in mortality, as opposed to 10% for fruits.
Even though eating whole fruits are very healthy for most people, the same cannot be said for fruit juices and canned fruits. This is because many of the fruit juices on the market are not 100% pure “real” fruit juices but consist of water, mixed with some sort of concentrate and an enormous amount of added sugar, which scientists are increasing beginning to realize is harmful to human health.
But even if you drink 100% real fruit juice, it is still a bad idea because the new study has found that for each portion of canned or frozen fruits consumed, there is an associated increase in death risk by 17%. The correlation can be explained, according to Dr. Oyebode by the fact that most canned fruit contains high sugar levels and cheaper varieties are packed in syrup rather than fruit juice.
The American Heart Association currently recommends eating 8 or more fruit and vegetable servings every day and this means that Americans should aim to eat 4.5 cups of fruits and vegetables a day.
The 2011 U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines advise Americans to eat 2.5 cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit a day. However the latest surveys show that the average American eats only 3 servings of vegetables and fruits a day, and 42 percent eat fewer than 2 servings a day.
One of the most universal predilections in human culinary preferences is a craving for sugar. The body is designed to snap up refined sugar and carbohydrates very readily because they can be converted into energy almost instantaneously in the body. Historically, this has not been an issue because sugar in the human diet was relatively rare and came from fresh fruits, which have a host of health benefits associated with them.
In the modern diet, technological advances have made it cheap and easy to infuse foods with an unnatural amount of sugar. The human body has no mechanisms that can effectively deal with this overload of sugar, and soon finds itself overloaded with way more than it can use or even tolerate, putting great stress on the body. The sugar cravings don’t go away either. Your body keeps on asking for more sugar even as it packs away and stores the extra sugar in growing deposits of fat.
In reaction to this stress, the body activates its NeuroEndoMetabolic Stress ResponseSM, starting a cascade of functional reactions in the body that give rise to the many different symptoms of stress and when dysregulated can result in Adrenal Fatigue. It is therefore important to physically limit the intake of sugar since your body has no internal mechanism to control its metabolism.
© Copyright 2014-2017 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.
NO. If you are healthy, you don't need digestive enzymes. As you age, your digestive enzymes also reduce. So taking some digestive enzymes would help.
