Eating Lots of Vegetables Does Not Prevent Heart Disease

When Considering Other Factors Like Lifestyle, Benefits of Raw Vegetable Intake Disappear... Maintain Weight with a Balanced Diet

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[Asia Economy Senior Reporter Jinsoo Lee] It is commonly said that eating a lot of vegetables leads to a long and healthy life.

However, a joint research team from the University of Oxford, University of Bristol, and Chinese University of Hong Kong recently published a paper in the scientific journal Frontiers in Nutrition, stating that eating a lot of vegetables does not help prevent heart disease.

The researchers analyzed the medical records of 399,586 people (average age 56) registered in the UK Biobank and followed them for 12 years.

The UK Biobank is a project planned to collect genetic data from residents aged 40 to 69 living throughout the United Kingdom.

During this period, 18,000 of them suffered from serious heart diseases such as myocardial infarction or stroke.

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The researchers asked the participants how many vegetables they ate daily and compared this to the incidence of heart disease.

Overall, the group that ate the most raw vegetables had a 15% lower probability of suffering from heart disease compared to the group that ate the least.

There was no difference in the case of cooked vegetables. However, when considering other factors such as the participants' health status and lifestyle, the benefits of consuming raw vegetables disappeared.

Consequently, the researchers concluded that eating a lot of vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and peas is not effective in preventing cardiovascular disease.

If there is any association between vegetable intake and heart health, it is because people who eat more vegetables tend to exhibit healthier behaviors in other aspects of their daily lives, according to the researchers.

Ben Lacey, Associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and co-author of the paper, advised, "Maintaining a balanced diet and keeping a healthy weight are good ways to stay healthy and avoid serious diseases such as cancer."

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