How many times have you heard the expression, "Eat your fruits and vegetables"? The expression is obviously old, well-worn and a bit of a cliche. But it is also true and one of the best recommendations for a healthy diet. Eating daily portions of fruits and vegetables can help prevent heart disease and high blood pressure among other diseases. Heart disease, high blood pressure and strokes are the number one and number three causes of death in the U.S. However, daily servings of fruits and vegetables have been proven to reduce the risks of heart disease and high blood pressure.

One Harvard sponsored Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow up Study, that tracked almost 110,000 men and women over 14 years, showed that higher consumption of fruits and vegetables lowered the chances of developing heart disease. The people in the study that averaged 8 or more servings per day of fruits and vegetables were 30% less likely to have had a heart attack, during the study, versus those people that averaged 1.5 or less servings per day.

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have also been shown to reduce blood pressure. One study by the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension found that people who had existing high blood pressure were able to reduce both their systolic blood pressure (the higher number of a blood pressure reading) and their diastolic blood pressure (the lower number of a blood pressure reading), by almost the same amounts as achieved with blood pressure medications, simply by meeting and exceeding the daily recommended consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Daily fruits and vegetables reduce heart disease, lower blood pressure and reduce strokes. A juicer is a simple and quick way to make and drink 6 ounce glasses of juice which is equivalent to one serving of a fruit or vegetable. Eat or drink your fruits and vegetables. Use a juicer.

Published 11/29/2009 12:00:00 AM

Tags: Healthy Diet