Despite growing evidence that people should in fact eat 10 portions of fruit and veg a day,the majority of British adults fail to reach the five-a-day target.
According to the NHS,just 29 per cent of adults ate five portions a dayin 2017, with the average being 3.8 portions.
Fewer men than women met the target, with youngsters aged 16-24 also less likely than other adults to hit the quota.Among children aged 5-15, less than one in five (18 per cent) managed fiveportions.
In early 2017, Imperial College London's School of Public Health pooled results from 95 separate studies involving two million people and made arecommendation that individuals should strive to eat ten portions per day.
Analysis of the studies showed that doing so would slash disease risk across the board.
Broken down by illness,10-a-day(or 800g) was said toslash stroke riskby 33 per cent,cardiovascular disease riskby 28 per cent,heart disease riskby 24 per cent,total cancer riskby 13 per cent andpremature deathrisk by 31 per cent.
Published in theInternational Journal of Epidemiology, the research received widespread media coverage, andtwo years on another large-scale analysis has achieved the same feat, this time concerning thepsychological benefits of fruit and veg.
In the new study, published inSocial Science and Medicine, researchers from the Universities of Leeds and York assessed surveys from over 40,000 people in the UK, drawing on data collected over a decade.
When controlled for factors such as physical health, age, employment status, income and education, consumption of fruit and vegetables was shown to be linked toincreases in mental wellbeing and life satisfaction.
Researchers noted that 'mental wellbeing responds in a dose-response fashion to increases in both the quantity and frequency of fruit and vegetables consumed.'
The positive impact that fruit and veg can have on your mental wellbeing was shown to be perhaps greater than you might expect.
According to the report: 'A five-portion increase in the number of fruits and vegetables consumed (on a day with positive consumption) would be associated with a 0.67-unit increase in mental wellbeing.
“This would be approximately equivalent in magnitude to the estimated wellbeing loss from widowhood (−0.68), and approximately one third of the estimated impact from unemployment, which is known to have one of the largest effects on subjective wellbeing.'
Increasing the regularity of vegetable consumption from never to 4-6 days per week, meanwhile, 'generates approximately the same estimated increase in life satisfaction as being married, whereas moving in the opposite direction (reducing consumption from 4-6 days per week to never) generates approximately the same estimated loss in life satisfaction as being widowed.'
Lastly,upping your intake by one portion a day was said to be as beneficial to mental health as going for a walk an extra7-8days each month.
