FFC ClipBoard: This article is a little misleading, and it basically points it out without using the word misleading, which I used.
In order to live longer you also have to not smoke, drink very little alcohol, exercise and on and on. It sounds like the grapefruit and egg diet, where you eat grapefruit and eggs along with everything else and you’re supposed to lose weight. It doesn’t happen unless you eat only grapefruit and eggs.
It sounds like this is an advertisement for produce, but the cost of produce is so high, who can afford 5 servings of veggies and 4 servings of fruit every day – hold the juice and potatoes, peas and corn. That could add up to $10 dollars a day, just for your side dishes. Now if that’s all you’re eating, maybe you’ll live longer, lose weight, quit smoking and cut back on alcohol consumption which are the real keys to longevity.
Then you have to ask about all those pesticides and whatever they’ve been spraying on produce once it’s picked to make it stay fresh longer during the pandemic, and how do those additives effect longevity?
Oh, and for the animal consuming industry, not to worry, because more than 5 servings of fresh plants divided into veggies and fruits will not make you live even longer, so there’s plenty of room for all kinds of nonplant foods to be added.
- This study says 5 servings a day may prolong life. Yet, the Heart Association recommends 9 total servings a day. So this current study cuts the amount of plant foods to live longer almost in half.
Two of the major reasons why more produce isn’t bought by consumers is the high cost and the freshness. It appears that grocery stores make more money from charging high prices and dumping the rotted produce that doesn’t sell in the tax write-off bin, rather than lowering the price to move the product.
Store owners love to move product, so it’s not that they’re not wanting that thrill of success. It must be that they make more money writing it off than selling it. They either found a tax loophole for produce or tax laws are written to keep you from buying produce, so you’ll buy other products instead – level the playing field.
You wouldn’t believe some of the moldy smelling, rotted, yellow tinged collard greens that show up from the food bank, and probably gets resold to companies that make fruit and vegetable juices. You didn’t really think those companies use primo veggies and fruits did you? Well, maybe they started out that way, but that’s not what’s in your glass. It’s not easy to clean the rot and mold from produce, no matter how hard you try without losing all of it.
So I’d say it’s probably not a good idea to drink juice unless you press it yourself and that’s costly.
Fruit – fresh, canned or frozen – isn’t necessary for our survival. Plants are. You could eat all vegetables and survive very nicely.
The article didn’t speak much about animals on the plate, only how many veggies and fruits were required to live longer, which may suggest that you can eat all the animals you want as long as you eat your veggies and fruits, which is nothing new. That’s what my mother and father always said, as long as you eat all your veggies, you can have more meat.
The article also didn’t cover canned, dried, frozen fruits and vegetables.
Spinach, lettuce, kale and carrots. To me, lettuce has very little value, but I can see if you’re selling a lifestyle, you would include lettuce and spinach since it’s the foundation of salads and all restaurants serve some version of salad, whether on a sandwich or plate. What happened to cabbage? And who eats kale anymore? Sales dropping off? Probably.
Actually, there was nothing new in this article and it was a waste of my time. Somebody commissioned a study to put some science behind the consumption of produce that’s too expensive to buy and once you do, it’s half rotted – from the inside out which the customer doesn’t see upon purchasing it.
Still, plants are where it’s at, so keep on eating them, and don’t worry if you fall into the dreaded category of ‘no further benefit’ the more you consume after 5 servings. How would they know if they skewed the results in the first place by skewing the parameters? It’s all correlational.
Eating plants vs eating animals increases the quality of life, but since quality of life can’t be measured with any degree of accuracy unless you’re measuring degree of sickness, the researchers left that important variable out.
This article made the farmers happy. Eat more veggies and you can eat more animals is the takeaway. Families have already been doing that for decades.
And about those potatoes: Most researchers are talking about French fries any time they indicate that potatoes should be classified as a weed, because that’s what they grew up on. They don’t understand that there are many ways to serve a potato besides deep-frying it. You have to wonder about that. Scientists designing, implementing and interpreting studies regarding potatoes, when their knowledge to begin with is so limited.
- That was a blanket ‘no potato’ recommendation. Peas and corn won’t make you live longer either, even though peas and corn are good for you.
Anything that grows in soil could be called a weed. How about kale? Who were the subjects in this study or studies? They all eat kale? I find that hard to believe. Enough of them where kale was one of four top vegetables that promotes longevity?
Keep eating your veggies and forget the animal. Animals don’t belong on plate. That’s what they should have been studying, instead of which veggies and fruits make you live longer. The elephant in the room was the animal on the plate.
Remember this: The title says 5 servings for longevity. The Heart Association recommends 5 veggies and 4 fruit servings = 9 total plant servings. This current study cut the need for longevity in half, which makes the slaughter industry happy indeed.
I guess this wasn’t a waste of time after all. Those slaughter industry people are pretty slick.
ARTICLE BEGINS HERE:
5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables can help you live longer, study finds
Korin Miller Mon, March 1, 2021, 2:58 PM It’s hardly shocking to hear that you should eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, but a new study is breaking down exactly how many you need of each to live longer.
The study, which was published in the journal Circulation, analyzed data from 66,719 women from the Nurses’ Health Study and 42,016 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and compared it with information on fruit and vegetable intake and death from 26 studies. After analyzing the data, the researchers found that having five servings of fruits and vegetables a day was linked to a longer life span.
When compared to people who had just two servings of fruit and vegetables a day, those who had five servings a day had a 13 percent lower risk of death from any cause, a 12 percent lower risk of death from heart disease, a 10 percent lower risk of death from cancer and a 35 percent lower risk of death from respiratory disease.
The researchers got even more specific with the recommendations, noting that having three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit daily is ideal. Based on their findings, though, having more than five servings of fruits and vegetables a day won’t make you live longer.
Not all fruits and vegetables are created equal, based on the findings. The researchers discovered that starchy vegetables like peas, corn and potatoes were not linked with a longer lifespan. Fruit juice also doesn’t count, per the study.
Spinach, lettuce, kale and carrots are considered good options for vegetables, while berries and citrus fruits got high marks in the fruit department.
Fruit juice and potatoes specifically got called out in the conclusion, with the researchers writing, “These findings support current dietary recommendations to increase intake of fruits and vegetables, but not fruit juice and potatoes.”
Currently, the American Heart Association recommends having four servings of fruit a day and five servings of vegetables a day. A serving can include a medium piece of fruit, a 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen fruits or vegetables and a cup of raw leafy vegetables.
Scott Keatley, a registered dietitian at Keatley MNT tells Yahoo Life that he’s “not surprised at all” by the findings, given that they largely support current recommendations. He does include a few caveats, though. “This data relies on people telling the researchers accurate and truthful information — which sometimes people do not,” he says. “Also, keep in mind that at baseline people who ate more vegetables tended to exercise more, drink less alcohol and don’t smoke. These are huge factors.”
Rena Zelig, registered dietitian nutritionist and director of the Masters of Science in Clinical Nutrition program at Rutgers University, tells Yahoo Life that the study’s findings are “very consistent” with the advice most dietitians currently give. “Both fruits and vegetables are very good for you. They are filled with vitamins, minerals and fiber, and thus have many health benefits,” Zelig says.
So, why do the recommendations lean more heavily toward vegetables than fruits? A lot of it comes down to calories, Keatley says. “One of the biggest predictors of developing a chronic health condition is excess visceral fat,” he explains. “Fruit, generally speaking, has more calories than vegetables and, over time, having more vegetables will allow you to get full with fewer calories.”
“Vegetables also tend to be more nutrient-dense than fruit — more nutrients, fewer calories — and are especially high in nutrients that many people miss out on, like folate, iron, magnesium, calcium and potassium,” Mary Cochran, a registered dietitian with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells Yahoo Life. “It would make sense that if people eat more vegetables, they are getting a higher concentration of these important nutrients, which could lead to improved health outcomes.”
Vegetables also “tend to have more fiber and less sugar” than fruits, registered dietitian Sonya Angelone, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, tells Yahoo Life. “They also tend to have certain compounds that promote health,” she says. “Plus, fiber feeds the good gut bacteria that produce more compounds to improve health and reduce risk for disease.”
But why were potatoes, peas and corn called out? That’s also not shocking to nutrition experts. ”Potatoes, peas, and corn are known to be starchier vegetables,” Zelig says. These vegetables also have more calories than their counterparts, Keatley says. “They all can be part of a healthy diet but, when comparing, say, spinach, which has seven calories per cup to peas, which have 118 … there is no competition,” he says. “Keeping calories in line with what is necessary for your body and workload is the No.1 thing you can do to maintain your health long-term.”
To get more fruits and vegetables in your diet, Zelig recommends building your dishes around them. “I love to tell my patients to build their meal around a salad,” she says. “You can be so creative with it, and can add your protein—chicken, meat, fish, beans, nuts and cheese — and even carbohydrates in the form of whole grains, while making the vegetables the star.”
Since cleaning and prepping produce can be a chore, Angelone suggests buying pre-chopped items when you can, like broccoli florets. You can also try to slip vegetables like spinach or kale into soups and sauces to increase your intake, she says. “Small changes are easier to maintain than more drastic changes,” she says.
Keeping produce out and visible is also important. “If you’ve got a fruit and veggie bowl with things you can munch on when you’re hungry, you’re far less likely to go to the cupboard and get a super-processed snack,” Keatley says. You can even reframe your appetizers and desserts to center around fruits and vegetables. Keatley suggests getting in the habit of having a crudité platter or vegetables as an appetizer and fruit with your dessert.
As a whole, Zelig says most people can see a big change when they incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their diet. “Fruits and vegetables are generally lower in calories and higher in nutrients than other foods,” she says. “Using more of them can change the whole profile of your diet for the better.”
Source: 5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables can help you live longer, study finds
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