Vegetables, Fruits Keep the Doctors Away

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, November 11, 2003 (ENS) - Low intake of fruits and vegetables is estimated to be a key risk factor for five to 12 percent of all cancers worldwide. For upper gastrointestinal tract cancers, the figure can be as high as 30 percent, United Nations officials said today, announcing a major new effort to increase awareness of the role fruit and vegetables can play in preventing noncommunicable diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today a unified approach to promote greater consumption of fruit and vegetables. The announcement was made here at the annual meeting of the WHO Global Forum on Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control.

“There is strong and growing evidence that sufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables helps prevent many diseases and promotes good health, but large parts of the world’s population consume too little of these,” said Dr. Pekka Puska, WHO director for noncommunicable disease prevention and health promotion, in Rio.

More grapes are grown around the world than any other fruit. (Photos by Scott Bauer courtesy USDA)

According to Kraisid Tontisirin, director of FAO’s Food and Nutrition Division, said, “FAO faces the challenge to increase worldwide awareness of the health benefits of increased fruit and vegetable consumption. To effectively promote more consumption of fruit and vegetables, prevailing diets need to be more systematically assessed for their nutrition and health implications.”

Noncommunicable diseases account for almost 60 percent of global deaths, and 45 percent of the global burden of disease. Unhealthy diet, together with physical inactivity and tobacco use, are among the key preventable risk factors for noncommunicable diseases.

Mahmoud Solh, director of the FAO Plant Production and Protection Division, said, “Accelerated national initiatives are required to produce and efficiently market more affordable horticulture products using less pesticide and with fewer losses in the post harvest handling.”

The joint fruit and vegetable promotion effort is being developed within the framework of the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. This effort is being developed in collaboration with other global partners, including national “5-a-day” type multistakeholder organizations, which promote fruit and vegetable consumption.

Today's carrots can contain twice the beta carotene as their predecessors did 30 years ago, and researchers expect to triple this important source of vitamin A.

Low fruit and vegetable intake is estimated to cause about 31 percent of ischaemic heart disease and 11 percent of stroke worldwide.

Sufficient daily intake of fruit and vegetables could help prevent major noncommunicable disease such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obesity and certain cancers.

Eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables helps ensure an adequate intake of most micronutrients, dietary fibres and a host of beneficial non-nutrient substances, say the two UN agencies. Increased fruit and vegetable consumption can also help displace excessive consumption of foods high in fats, sugars or salt.

“Despite the fact that developing countries produce a lot of the global supply of fruit and vegetables, and that possibilities for improving production in these countries are good, many people in the developing world do not eat enough. Consumption is also often low amongst lower socio-economic groups in developed countries,” said Dr. Puska.

According to the FAO statistical database, the total supply of fruit and vegetables is far below the intake minimum target in many countries, especially in Asia, Africa and in Eastern and Central Europe.