Eat those vegetables... They may save your life one day.

We always hear that eating vegetables and fruit is good for our health. But how exactly do these foods impact our health? A group of researchers investigated the benefits of eating fruit and vegetables and showed that including these foods in your diet can help reduce the risk for developing metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a group of conditions that occur simultaneously, increasing your risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Having even one of these conditions can increase blood pressure, elevated insulin levels, excess body fat around the waist or abnormal cholesterol levels, thereby contributing to your risk of serious disease. In combination, the risk is far greater. What the researchers found from test results was that study participants persons who had the highest fruit intake and vegetable intake had a 34% and 30% respectively lower chance of having the metabolic syndrome than did those who had the lowest intakes.

The researchers therefore concluded that higher intakes of fruit and vegetables are associated with a lower risk of the metabolic syndrome and that the lower risk may be the result of lower CRP concentrations. CRP is used mainly as a marker of inflammation. Measuring and charting C-reactive protein values can prove useful in determining disease progress (especially cardiovascular disease) or the effectiveness of treatments. The author of this study stated, “These findings support current dietary recommendations to increase daily intakes of fruit and vegetables as a primary preventive measure against cardiovascular disease.”1

References:
1. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 84, No. 6, 1489-1497, December 2006