10 portions of fruit & veg

We all know eating fruit and veg is good for us, we have been told for years that we need to be eating five portions per day to stay healthy and it’s alarming how many people actually struggle with this. I recently told you in an article on juicing some easy ways of getting those five a day in, but new research has just come out telling us we need to be consuming around seven to ten portions per day.The Spanish study revealed that people who eat seven-a-day live, on average more than a year longer than those who ate only five-a-day. It also showed that eating a lot of fruit and veg is particularly protective against heart disease.Researchers at the Andalusian School of Public Health’s Granada Cancer Registry analysed 25,682 deaths among 451,151 people over a 13 year period, Science Daily reports.They found that people who ate more than 569 grams of fruit and vegetables – seven portions – a day were 10% less likely to die and lived, on average, 1.12 years longer than those who ate less than 249 grams a day. The study also suggested that for every 200 gram increase in consumption, mortality risk falls by six per cent.Therefore, the researchers believe that almost 3% of deaths could be prevented if everyone ate seven portions a day. As a guide a portion of fruit can be 1 banana, 1 apple or 1 medium orange and a portion of veg could be 2 broccoli florets, 3 tablespoons of peas or 1 large sweet potato. My advice would be to have around seven servings of veg and around three of fruit. Veg generally has more nutrients and antioxidants than fruit, and fruit can be high in sugar therefore too much of it can, and will, be stored as fat.