Fruits and vegetables (F AND V) provide a diversified, flavored, colorful, tasty, low caloric, and protective, micro-nutrient rich diet. Overall it is estimated that low F AND V intake is attributable to approximately 2.7 million (4.9%) annual deaths and 26.7 million (1.8%) DALYs and causes about 31% of ischaemic heart diseases (IHD),
11% of stroke and 19% of gastro-intestinal cancers and still significantly associated (protective) with lung/pharyngeal/laryngeal/oral cancer, type-2 diabetes mellitus, bone-health, vision/cataract and micronutrient deficiency state. Low F AND V intake is considered as the sixth main risk factor for mortality in the world.
The Lyon Diet Heart Study demonstrated that a ‘Mediterranean diet’ (which is high in F AND V) substantially reduced the risk of incidence and mortality from myocardial infarction (MI) when compared with low fat diet alone.
The results of Indian Experiment of Infarct Survival (IEIS) showed that consumption of low-fat diet enriched with F AND V, compared with a standard low-fat diet, was associated with about 40% reduction in cardiac events and 45% reduction in mortality after one-year
A study carried out in south India too observed higher F AND V intake explained 48% of protective effect against CVD risk factors in the studied population.While results from the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial suggested that changes in dietary fats do not necessarily accompany automatic increase in F AND V intake.
