Should you eat more than 5 fruits and vegetables a day?

“For your health, you should eat five fruits and vegetables a day,” is the advice we’ve been reading and hearing everywhere for years. And just when we thought fulfilling it should put us on the right track to healthy eating, a team of British researchers found last April, that consuming 7 per day was more effective in preventing cancer and cardiovascular disease. Frankly,  we were a little frustrated.

According to their study, eating seven servings of fruits and vegetables would lower the risk of developing cancer by 25%, and of stroke by 31%. However, a team of Chinese and American researchers have recently questioned the study. By analyzing the behaviour of 800,000 people, they found that eating more than five fruits and vegetables a day does not make a significant difference against cardiovascular disease or cancer.

Finally, if you ever get to 5 ‘plants’ per day that is good enough. If you consume more is even better to stock up on vitamins and minerals. But do not count each serving ingested or you could become a bit (too) obsessed – which is never a good thing.

Grégoire PROVOST