Jacksonville's Neighborhood Garden

Cut your risk of dying prematurely by 42%!

The Doctor's Office

Have you ever wondered just how important it is to eat fruits and vegetables?  Is it really worth the extra money?  Will we live longer, or will it just SEEM like we're living longer eating vegetables?  Research recently published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health reminds us again that fruits and vegetables are the most cost-effective way to protect your health and longevity.

When budgets get tight, often one of the first places people look for savings is the grocery bill.  But cutting back on purchasing fresh fruit and vegetables is penny-wise and pound foolish.  What little savings you gain from buying less produce will be dwarfed by medical expenses and lost work, which is why governments around the world are spending money to promote fruits and vegetables.

There have been many studies published showing health benefits of higher consumption of fruits and vegetables, but never has a study associated eating fruit and vegetables with an improved risk of dying.  Recently British researchers published the results of their analysis of the impact of the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed and the risk of dying at any given age (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health).  Although they expected to see benefits, they were shocked to discover how much protection eating fruits and vegetables offer.  Over 65,200 study participants reported the foods they were eating over thirteen years, from 2001 to 2013.  Researchers analyzed this data and found that there is a dose response to fruits and vegetables that is quite remarkable in preventing mortality.  In other words, the more a person ate, the more protected he or she was from dying.  People eating 1-3 servings a day enjoyed a 14% reduction in the risk of dying at any given age.  Eating 3-4 servings yielded a 29% reduction in death, while 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily improved your chance of surviving by 36%.  The people eating  seven or more portions had an astonishing 42% reduction in mortality.  What this means is that as the study progressed, those that ate fruits and vegetables lived on, but those who skimped passed on.

So just how much produce is 7 servings?  A serving is defined as a half a cup, or about the size of your fist.   So it is not impractical to eat this much, it just takes a little planning, effort and for many of us changing our habits.

Eat more, Live more!

When you consider that the majority of medical expense is paid out at the end of life, and is spent on the chronic diseases that fruits and vegetables protect against, the cost of produce seems insignificant.   Nevertheless, very few people think of these things while purchasing food.  Americans eat pitiful few vegetables yet spend on average about $7,000 a year on medical costs per person!  This study, and many others demonstrate that prioritizing our spending to include more produce can and will pay off not just economically but more importantly with good health.  Hopefully this will make it a little easier to loosen your grip on that cash when it comes to buying produce!

We as consumers are casting votes with our dollars spent, but I want to emphasize another way we as citizens can impact the cost of produce.  Our tax dollars are used to subsidize large mono crops like corn and wheat.  The problem with this is that these staples are used largely to feed animals or to be processed into junk food.  While huge industrial agricultural, pesticide, and food manufacturing companies yield profits from these subsidies, Americans opting for the cheaper (subsidized) food yield disease and death as we see above!  It seems rational that we should be subsidizing the smaller organic farmers producing these health protecting fruits and vegetables, yet the politics and economics of food make it ever increasingly difficult for them to survive.  Let your representatives know how important this issue is to you and your families!  Look for opportunities to educate your friends and family.