posted by
janrinok
on Wednesday April 02 2014, @08:32AM
from the the-answer-is-blowing-in-the-wind dept.
from the the-answer-is-blowing-in-the-wind dept.
A new study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health authored by researchers at the University College of London has found that the more vegetables (and, to a lesser extent, fresh fruit) you eat the better your chances of longevity.
As the popular press is reporting, Oyinlola Oyebode, the study's lead researcher, said in a prepared statement that "We all know that eating fruit and vegetables is healthy, but the size of the effect is staggering." The research established correlation, not causation, but the findings are consistent with already-established guidelines from worldwide governmental health agencies. If you want to live a long and healthy life, eat plenty of veggies.
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New study: the More Veggies, the Better
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(Score: 4, Funny) by mrbluze on Wednesday April 02 2014, @08:47AM
... But if you want to live a happy life, eat lots of bacon too!
Do it yourself, 'cause no one else will do it yourself.
(Score: 1) by mrkaos on Wednesday April 02 2014, @09:22AM
I actually like veggies!
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Wednesday April 02 2014, @10:50AM
Me too, especially raw, although I think I usually actually end up eating more fruits than vegetables. I do seem to notice that since I started eating a lot of fresh fruit I never seem to get colds anymore. It could be a coincidence or just perception of course.
(Score: 3, Informative) by dbot on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:06AM
(Score: 1) by Rich26189 on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:29AM
Me three, I have always liked veggies and even more so after seeing a PBS fund raiser special featuring Dr. Joel Fuhrman. His advice sounded right to me so I bought his book “Eat to liveâ€*. I found it very informative and so bought five more copies to give to my family and friends.
Since then, one of my favourite meals is collard greens with sauteed onions and mushrooms. To up the flavor a little “wooster sauce†as Nigella calls it. Round it out with a some kidney beans and chopped walnut and I am good.
* I have no association with the book other than a happy reader.
(Score: 3, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday April 02 2014, @10:30AM
No Shit Shallot!
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday April 02 2014, @10:33AM
Please ignore any perceived snark in my previous message. This is valuable research and a good story submission, I just wanted to bust out a bad pun.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Scruffy on Wednesday April 02 2014, @04:16PM
FTFY. ;)
1087 is a lucky prime.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khakipuce on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:14AM
People are getting overweight from eating too much.
Surely the best advice is balance in all things. A varied and balanced diet is what we should aim for. For most people a lot of this advice relates to end of life, i.e. whether you will live a few years more and with in reason I'd rather enjoy my life now than spend a few extra years in a nursing home
(Score: 2) by darthservo on Wednesday April 02 2014, @01:47PM
Agree with the balance.
A few years back I decided that I was going to make conscious effort to lose some weight. I never considered myself large, but I knew that I had some extra that could use some slimming up. Using a calorie calculator, I started keeping track of what I was eating and how much. Really helped me to adjust my diet and to look at food differently, especially nutritionally (what some of the more efficient calories were).
During this time, however, I allowed myself 'cheat' days (usually weekends). So, M-F I'd rigorously stick to my calorie regimen, while S&S I'd ease up some - not necessarily pig out, but just not be as focused. I viewed this as helping me to not give up as easily; kind of a 'Stick with it the majority of the time, and then allow myself some rewards sparingly'. I have to think that it helped me personally to keep on track, otherwise I knew I'd likely give into breaking and then hitting a point of no return.
So I'll agree balance is needed - stick with what the body needs for the majority, and then view 'treats' for what they are.
"Good judgment seeks balance and progress. Lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration." - Dwight D Eisenhower
(Score: 2, Interesting) by guises on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:43PM
Not in this case. No one gets fat from eating too much broccoli, and the more vegetables you eat the less room you have in your stomach for junk.
Go nuts.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:27AM
If you make a broccoli and beef teriyaki stir fry like I did, you don't have the stomach space for a double quarter pounder with supersize fries and corn syrup ketchup with a giant corn syrup soda followed by half a container of sugary ice cream with corn syrup topping sauce.
Its highly likely the reduced carb intake is responsible for improved liver function and reduced inflammation and all fructose "bitter truth" stuff.
I suspect this is why eating sugary fruit doesn't help much. Also I suspect eating styrofoam would be roughly as effective at prevention of carb intake, its just that veggies are mostly low carb. Also I suspect eating enormous quantities of sugar beets would invalidate the veggie results.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday April 02 2014, @11:50AM
Alternate theory:
1. Eating fruits and vegetables is part of our evolutionary history going back to at least the "swinging from the trees" period.
2. Eating meat is part of our evolutionary history from right around the time we went from australopethicus to early homo species.
3. Eating grains and other species' dairy regularly as a major food source only really goes back to the agricultural revolution a mere 10,000 years ago or so.
Why would it be any surprise that we're best adapted to eat fruits and vegetables, can generally handle eating meat and fish, but only tolerably adapted to eat grains and dairy?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:05PM
This. Not to mention the fact that, when you eat most fruits and vegetables, the seeds pass through your body undigested and have a nice warm fertilizer pack to sprout from when excreted. Unlike grains, where you actually destroy the germ part of the seed when your body digests it.
For me it's been Paleo for almost 2 years and I doubt I'll ever go back!
To be oneself, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:22PM
Not an alternative, but a different way to phrase it, looking at the industrial and transportation infrastructure required to create sugar from sugarcane or corn syrup from corn, just a few generations ago no one ate that kind of junk food. Or even just plain old grains other than occasional hunter gatherer successes.
Also our digestive system isn't wildly different than other mammals (oh yeah, different, but its not like they're from planet Vulcan) and if farmers make a lot of money by simultaneously fattening and sickening livestock mammals using a certain type of food, we'd probably be pretty dumb to eat it ourselves, yet we do... and the livestock are pumped full of antibiotics and hormones and supplements to keep them healthy enough (barely) but we aren't, which is even stupider as part of a diet plan.
The fish thing is interesting studying archeological dig results the main difference in diet between the neanderthals and sapiens species seems to be we eat fish. Big 3-way argument over we need to eat fish for brain development, or we were finally smart enough to catch and eat fish, or most likely both effects feed on each other. So either need to eat fish or need to rely on industrially produced supplements and very careful dietary monitoring. Requiring it, or requiring an intellectually complicated set of dietary hacks to avoid it, is different from can generally handle.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 02 2014, @06:50PM
Answer: Because it takes significantly less than 10000 years for a species to adapt to a new diet.
From an evolutionary perspective, shouldn't all of these dietary changes enhance the organism's chance to survive through its reproductive period? Don't the ill effects we're talking about typically occur long after most reproduction occurs? How could natural selection possibly have a significant effect on these long term effects?
(Score: 1) by CoolHand on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:38PM
"If you make a broccoli and beef teriyaki stir fry like I did, you don't have the stomach space for a double quarter pounder with supersize fries and corn syrup ketchup with a giant corn syrup soda followed by half a container of sugary ice cream with corn syrup topping sauce"
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Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:07PM
Only in public school hot lunches, no kidding either.
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:03PM
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:32PM
(Score: 2) by Covalent on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:40PM
Anecdote != Evidence
Many people live to be 100 and smoke and drink and eat too much. But many MORE such people die at 63 from a massive heart attack.
Oh, and cabbage is a vegetable.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Wednesday April 02 2014, @04:10PM
(Score: 1) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday April 02 2014, @08:31PM
I aim to be one of those people, here's to trying! :D
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(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:33PM
Up to a certain point. If you overdo it you can trash your pancreas.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday April 02 2014, @02:48PM
Citation needed.
When I search for vegetables destroy pancreas I get results like
"A healthy diet consisting of green vegetables is a big boost for pancreatic health."
"Celery, artichokes and oregano are packed with chemicals that destroy pancreatic cancer cells."
"a diet rich in fruits and vegetables may help prevent pancreatic cancer, a particularly deadly type of tumor. "
(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:16PM
My sister almost died from pancreatitis due to hypertriglyceridemia [wikipedia.org] that occurred when she switched her diet to lots of fruits and vegetables (high carbohydrate content as listed under the "causes" section).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 02 2014, @03:37PM
I think the OP probably got confused with an all-fruit diet which is very unhealthy: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/29/health/steve-job s-all-fruit-diet/ [cnn.com]- diet-lands-ashton-kutcher-in-the-hospital/ [cnn.com]
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/28/all-fruit
Fruits (particularly the sugar laden stuff) are way overrated, in fact even potatoes (with skin) are arguably more nutritious and healthier than apples (with skin). Compare: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and -vegetable-products/2770/2 [self.com]u it-juices/1809/2 [self.com]
with: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fr
You get enough good stuff from vegetables. I'd say vegetables, nuts and fish (skip the high mercury stuff), and al-dente potatoes and pasta/rice if you need carbs[1].
[1] Starches (low fructose carbs) are good if you are physically active - there's just so much stomach space and eating time, the more physically active you are the more high carb foods you need - good luck eating 7000 kcal worth of lettuce if you're busy doing the Tour de France: http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2011 /07/14/what-fuels-tour-de-france-riders/ [forbes.com]s tories/eating-tour-de-france [bicycling.com]
http://www.bicycling.com/garmin-insider/featured-
You could do the same with proteins and fats but it's more expensive. Some say it's healthier.
(Score: 1) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday April 02 2014, @08:36PM
I think rocket propelled bicycling breaks the rules :3
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Serial_Priest on Wednesday April 02 2014, @04:44PM
In TFA, the study's authors indicate that their data for vegetable consumption was self-reported. But it is not unusual for people to lie about what they eat, both to themselves and others.
For example, see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1454084 [nih.gov] (suggesting that fat people lie about how much they actually eat, even when they know they are being monitored.)
To my thinking, the underlying data and methodology in this study are unreliable.
(Score: 1) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday April 02 2014, @10:15PM
I'm also skeptical of the study of TFA but also disagree a bit with the suggestion you make from your reference although I might be nitpicking.
Main point: I'm not sure it's lying, it might in fact be an attempt at being as truthful as possible even if actually wrong.
My opinion is that most fat people (and probably an awful lot of thin people too, some of them are in no way healthy) suffer from unidentified or atypical undernourishment and the fat people are extremely hungry as a result which skews their perception into "being this hungry it's impossible for me to have eaten more than..." and so on. The problem isn't that the body is wrong or "lying", the problem is that the body is right and that one repeats the mistake by giving it more of what didn't work for as long as it takes.
Most likely this is a result of the incredibly wrong "any and all fat is bad" meme that destroyed regular traditional food consumption because fat, just a little bit of fat like a quarter of a sausage or a fried egg or a strip of bacon satiates far more than ten or even twenty times as much non-fatty food. Add a little coleslaw (or similar) [wikipedia.org] to "play around" with and accentuate the fat and you're likely already far more healthy than any amount of western vegetarians (Indians do it right with lots of fatty vegetarian food because if you can't taste the fat then neither can your gut). And happier :)
The human body/the digestive system triggers the "stop eating you have enough food" signal on very moderate fat consumption (this fact is the sane part of the Atkins diet) and without fat you instead have to wait for the rather bad "no more space" signal which depends a lot on how fit/tight you are (making you likely to overeat a lot no matter how "healthy" the food is).
Thin people who live exclusively on non-fatty food and think everything is all right (aka "health freaks") probably have a broken digestive signaling system and serious hidden health problems. It's not too hard to spot/suspect.
I don't want to give the impression that I think this is all that's going on: of course it isn't, but I'm convinced it's a part of it that's too easily glossed over.
At the risk of making a fallacy I'd say people "think" fat people have to eat a lot (some do) just like people also "think" trees grow out of the ground by "eating a lot of soil" (they don't really) instead of mostly out of the air (the leaves are the "mouths" of a tree: photosynthesis = sunlight & carbon dioxide from the air while roots, trunk, and branches are mostly just water transportation, sugar storage, and structural support).
The easiest recipe for becoming fat is to toy with starvation (including eating non-food) and then start eating normal food: your system will be completely messed up and desperately suck every possible bit of energy out of everything making you fat. Getting back to a normal state takes a lot of time and effort: you've got to eat more actual food (and fat!) and spend ridiculously more energy.
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