Vegetables Alone Can’t Keep You Heart Healthy, But You Still Need To Eat Your Greens

A new study suggests eating vegetables may have little impact on risk of heart disease, but other experts
say a varied diet is still important.

Researchers analyzed the diets of nearly 400,000 U.K. Adults.

They found that eating more vegetables, especially cooked ones, didn’t reduce people’s risk of heart
attack, stroke or other heart problems, or dying from these conditions.

Eating a modest amount of vegetables each day may have little impact on your heart health, suggests a
new study released Feb. 21.

Researchers analyzed the diets of nearly 400,000 U.K. Adults and found that eating more vegetables,
especially cooked ones, didn’t reduce people’s risk of heart attack, stroke or other heart problems, or
dying from these conditions.

“Our large study did not find evidence for a protective effect of vegetable intake on the occurrence of
CVD [cardiovascular disease],” Qi Feng, PhD, an epidemiologist at the Nuffield Department of Population
Health at the University of Oxford, said in a statement.

While the observational study showed that eating raw vegetables provided some protection against
cardiovascular disease, eating cooked vegetables did not.

In addition, any benefit of vegetable consumption was reduced when researchers took into account
people’s educational level and other socioeconomic factors, as well as lifestyle factors such as physical
activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, red meat intake, and other aspects of their diet.

“Our analyses show that the seemingly protective effect of vegetable intake against CVD risk is very
likely to be accounted for by bias from residual confounding factors, related to differences in
socioeconomic situation and lifestyle,” said Feng.

The study was published on Feb. 21 in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

Other experts, though, say this doesn’t mean you should pass on the vegetables.
Because this is an observational study, it can’t show that eating more vegetables doesn’t boost heart
health, only that there is a connection between the two, given the type of analysis used in the study.

“The key problem with an observational study like this is that people who eat different amounts of
vegetables will differ, on average, in terms of many other factors as well,” Kevin McConway, PhD, an
emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said in a statement.

For example, people who eat more vegetables may be more health conscious, exercise more, take
nutritional supplements, and regularly visit their doctor. These other factors can reduce a person’s risk
of cardiovascular disease.

Or they may be eating more vegetables because they are already at risk of heart disease and are trying
to improve their health.

Tom Sanders, ScD, PhD, a professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, noted
that people in the study who ate more vegetables were more likely to be taking medication for high
cholesterol and high blood pressure.

These people already have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, which could dampen the apparent
effect of eating vegetables on their risk of heart- and blood vessel-related conditions.

As a result, “these findings should not be taken to indicate that eating more vegetables has no benefit to
health, especially cardiovascular health,” Sanders said in a statement.

In addition, measuring the benefit of one component of the diet can be difficult because when a person
eats more vegetables, they eat less of something else.

What they eat less of can have different effects on their health — swapping out fruit for vegetables will
likely have less of an impact on heart health than cutting back on red meat instead.

McConway said the way the researchers analyzed the data doesn’t allow for this kind of food-
substitution effect.
The new study used data from the UK Biobank, a long-term study of nearly half a million adults in the
United Kingdom.

At the beginning of the study, people were asked to estimate how much raw and cooked vegetables
they ate each day. Researchers then followed them for 10 years to see how many developed
cardiovascular disease.

On average, people reported eating 5 tablespoons of vegetables each day.

But that is a tiny fraction of the recommended amount of vegetables for adults.

On average, people in the study consumed one-eighth of the recommended amount of vegetables.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults eat about 2.5 cups of vegetables each day
or about 40 tablespoons.

Even those in the study who consumed “more” vegetables averaged only about 10 tablespoons each
day.

“In short, this paper should in no way change advice to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a
day,” Naveed Sattar, PhD, a professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said in a
statement.

“Many living in the UK fall well short of this, sadly, and more needs to be done to encourage better
intake of vegetables,” he said.

Victoria Taylor, a registered dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said multiple factors are involved
in determining the risk of cardiovascular disease, all of which need to be addressed.

“Adopting a whole-diet approach to the way we eat — such as the traditional Mediterranean-style diet
— together with addressing our lifestyle, which includes not smoking, being physically active and
managing our weight, are important to reducing the risk of heart and circulatory conditions,” she said in
a statement.