The role of fruit and vegetable consumption in human health and disease prevention

Abstract

Several reports have shown that adequate intake of fruits and vegetables form an important part of a healthy diet and low fruit and vegetable intake constitute a risk factor for chronic diseases such as cancer, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and cataract formation (Van Duyn & Pivonka, 2000). Scientific evidence indicates that frequent consumption of fruits and vegetables can prevent oesophageal, stomach, pancreatic, bladder and cervical cancers and that a diet high in fruits and vegetables could prevent 20% of most types of cancers (Crawford et al., 1994). According to reports, fruit and vegetable consumption is influenced by gender, age, income, education and family origin (Wardle et al., 2000; Giskes et al., 2002). Other studies suggest that education may influence nutritional knowledge about fruits and vegetables and consequently also influence their intake. Empirical findings also indicate that family origin and socioeconomic status affect the purchasing power of food, food choice, food preparation and food availability which in turn affects consumption. Studies have shown that preferences of fruit and vegetable consumption differ in males and females (Wardle et al., 2000; Wang et al., 2002). A study carried out by Sylvestre et al (2006) revealed that mothers consumed 2 1/2 vegetable servings and 2 1/2 fruit servings on average daily and that the reported daily average of fruit and vegetable servings was slightly below the basic recommendation of 5 servings per day (Sylvestre et al., 2006). The same study suggested that children of mothers who consume high fruit and vegetable consumption are more likely to consume fruits and vegetables frequently than children of mothers with low fruit consumption. If the mothers with high fruit and vegetable consumption eat fruits and vegetables at home during meals which are shared with children, then their findings could underpin the importance of fruit and vegetable availability at home. However, it may be important to verify whether the relationship is simply a reflection of the control mothers have over food availability at home or it relates to shared nutritional knowledge about the benefits of fruits and vegetables.