Official advice on eating fruit and vegetables could save more than 15,000 lives a year in Britain – if everyone followed it, researchers claimed today.
And more than twice as many deaths would be prevented if people also stuck to recommended levels of salt, unhealthy fat and fibre, according to an analysis of the British population.
Researchers at Oxford University fed details on British eating habits and disease rates over a three year period into a computer model to estimate the effect of improving diet.
Official government advice in the UK is that people eat "Five-a-day" of fruit and vegetables.
Campaigners said promotion of the advice needed to be stepped up because of the potential benefits.
Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, which backed the research, said: "This highlights that well worn dietary messages – like eating five portions of fruit and veg a day – shouldn’t be overlooked, because they could have a huge impact on our health.
"We need to keep promoting initiatives that will help people to make healthier food choices and improve their diet. Prevention really is the key to improving the nation’s heart health."
Researcher Dr Peter Scarborough writes in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health: "While boosting fruit and vegetable consumption would have the most positive effect on health outcomes, there is scope for more to be achieved by lowering recommended levels of salt and fat consumption."
He added today: "Meeting dietary recommendations would have a massive effect on the health of the nation. According to our model, the biggest impact would be eating more fruit and veg.
"But this doesn’t mean you should just stop at five – the more the better. In some European countries like Greece and Italy they get to five a day easily. Adding fruit and veg into your daily diet is achievable for everyone."
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2010; doi 10.1136/jech.2010.114520
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