Eat More vegetables. consume More Fruit. Get Healthy–Really?
While it is frequent to see scientific studies on how health might be improved by the usage of certain, particular vitamins of supplements and minerals it is not the same for the real McCoy.
How true? inquire yourself and do a goggle search (or a PUB Med or any advanced search of scientific articles) about how multiple times you see a study–any study–on a certain fruit or vegetable that comes out proving a few health improvement. Not a group, but a certain fruit or vegetable. And proof of health, not disease (this is a critical distinction).
We are talking about real science here not just produced up stuff from a few science nut or health nut. And we are talking about real fruits and vegetables such as a particular apple or broccoli rather than a group of fruits or veggies. In other words we are talking about something highly concrete and certainly not abstract–this is where real scientific study comes in highly handy: such study is not abstract or it is not science. And, importantly, if I can endorse it and you can’t, it is not scientifically provable. Period.
How many? Which vegetable? Which fruit?
There are lots of promoters of eating fresh fruits and veggies and multiple of them provide solid credentials like the Harvard, Tufts, consume 5 a day, and so on (for a surely good goggle search try veggies and health or fruits and health).
For example, the Harvard site cites the newest dietary guidelines that, “call for 5 to thirteen servings of fruits and veggies a day, depending on one’s caloric intake. For anyone who requires 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight and health, this translates into 9 servings, or 4½ cups per day.” The quotation for this is The USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is a useful abstraction but not a certain guide to particular fruits and veggies and how they can advertise your health.
But most of what these outstanding institutions advertise is air–no scientific studies demonstrating the health effects of a single fruit or vegetable can be found on the Harvard site, not one. True, it’s cool air, but air nevertheless.
Now we’re not talking about the genuine analysis on fruits and veggies like this one listed in Pub Med, “Electron beam and gamma irradiation effectively lower Listeria monocytogenes populations on chopped romaine lettuce”, (J Food Prot. 2006 Mar;69(3):570-4, for those who require to know) . This kind of analysis is not after the health publicizing effects of eating, in this case, romaine lettuce. And it doesn’t pretend to be whatever other than what it is.
Of course sites marketing the health pros of eating of fruits and vegetables can be hiding the scientific studies and do not want to bother their visitors with all those numbers and scientific names for turnips or plums. Or farmers who grow the surely good stuff and how to purchase them.
I reflect a study involving folate and green leafy veggies and a few kids on an island in the South Pacific. The study, a valid scientific study, had to be halted for the reason that the scientists found out that the children in the study couldn’t get sufficient folate for their diets from the fresh veggies because the veggies themselves were deficient. So the study stopped for the reason that, ethically, depriving the children’s diet of this vital ingredient could damage them–especially when the science proved the children would be deficient on a natural diet. So much for the health promoting pros of this entire group of vegetables–and I have not seen another study to refute this single isolated, particular controlled scientific study on green leafy vegetable and precisely how they advertise health in humans.
So how do you know if the fruits or veggies you consume can surely promote better health? basic answer is you do not. But then again, if you stopped eating fruits and veggies what would happen? can be all those diseases they write about in Pub Med and cited by the Tufts nutritionists and become the cover story about our fat nation for Time Magazine: consume your fruits and vegetables and hold on healthy or until we know, needless to say, something special.
