How many fruits and vegetables do you really need?

Most people agree that eating fruits and vegetables is beneficial for health. But how many fruits and vegetables do you really need? There is no clear answer but chances are you are not eating enough!

Why fruits and vegetables?

Fruits and vegetables contain a variety of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and phytochemicals. Most also contain carbohydrates, which are a great source of energy, important for immune function, recovery, etc. Fruits and vegetables are also low in kilojoules and many are high in volume, contributing to optimal body composition. Finally, eating more fruits and vegetables crowds out other unhealthier foods from our diet.

What about anti-nutrients?

You have probably heard about lectins, phytates, oxalates and other components of fruits and vegetables that make them “toxic” or “dangerous”. What the evidence suggests is that those chemicals can act as hormetic stressors and important signals to our body to improve resilience.

How many fruits and vegetables do you really need?

Different countries use different ways of communicating their recommendations, including serves, portions, grams, cup-equivalents and plate proportions.

Australia

Australia’s dietary guidelines recommend that adults eat plenty of vegetables and fruit every day. For adults aged 19–50, the recommendation is 5 serves of vegetables and legumes and 2 serves of fruit per day for women, and 6 serves of vegetables and legumes and 2 serves of fruit for men. The recommendation varies with age, sex and life stage.

A standard serve of vegetables is approximately 75g, while a serve of fruit is approximately 150g. Therefore, the number of serves translate to 300g of fruits and 375-450g of vegetables per day. You can find the full recommendations in the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

United Kingdom

In the UK, the familiar recommendation is at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day. For adults, one portion is generally around 80 g.

The UK also recommends limiting fruit and vegetable juice and smoothies to a combined maximum of 150ml per day, with this counting as only one portion. More information is available from the NHS 5 A Day guidance.

United States

The United States takes a more individualised approach. Fruit and vegetable recommendations are based on a person’s age, sex and energy requirements and are expressed using cup-equivalents. The guidelines encourage consumption of a variety of vegetables, including dark green, red and orange vegetables, beans, peas and lentils, as well as whole fruits.

For most adults, the US recommends 3 servings of vegetables per day (where 1 serving is 1 cup raw or cooked vegetables or 2 cups leafy greens) and 2 servings of vegetables per day (where 1 serving is 1 cup raw fruit or ½ cup dried fruit. More information is available from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Canada

Canada uses a simple visual approach rather than prescribing a specific number of daily servings. The Canada’s Food Guide recommends making half of your plate vegetables and fruits, with one-quarter consisting of whole grain foods and one-quarter consisting of protein foods.

This approach focuses on the overall composition of meals rather than requiring people to count individual servings throughout the day.

Japan

Japan’s Food Guide Spinning Top recommends approximately 5–6 servings of vegetable dishes and 2 servings of fruit per day.

The Japanese system is based around typical dishes rather than simply measuring individual foods by weight. The recommendations are outlined in the Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top published by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

China

China’s Dietary Guidelines provide specific recommendations in grams. Adults are advised to include 300–500g of vegetables per day, with approximately half coming from dark-coloured vegetables. The recommendation for fresh fruit is 200–350g per day.

The Chinese guidelines also emphasise that fresh fruit should not simply be replaced with processed fruit juice. These recommendations are summarised by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Brazil

Brazil takes a different approach to many of these countries. Rather than focusing on a specific daily number of servings of fruit and vegetables, its dietary guidelines emphasise the importance of building meals around natural or minimally processed foods.

Fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and other minimally processed foods form an important part of this dietary pattern, while consumption of ultra-processed foods is discouraged. These principles are outlined in Brazil’s Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population.

The more the merrier?

A very comprehensive meta-analysis from 2017 examined 95 studies (44 from Europe, 26 from the USA, 20 from Asia and 5 from Australia) to study the association between fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality.

This meta-analysis found that the daily amount of fruit and vegetables to show the highest reduction in risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality was 800g. The reduction was 24%, 33%, 28% and 31%, respectively.

To put things into perspective, if we consider that the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in Australia is about 6.4% as per the latest statistics, eating 800g of fruits and vegetables per day can reduce this risk to 4.6%. In other words, almost 2 people in every 100 will potentially escape cardiovascular disease if they hit this daily target of fruits and vegetables.

The highest reduction for total cancer was found to be 14% (not much but something is better than nothing) for 550-600g of fruits and vegetables per day (also not much, compared to the 800g target). Perhaps it is unfair to count cancer as a single category as every cancer is different, and even within cancer types (e.g. breast, bone) there are many subtypes. Regardless, these data suggest that eating 4-8 servings of fruit and vegetables per day can reduce the risk of death from cancer.

Most importantly, you don’t need to be eating 800g of fruit and vegetables to reap the benefits. Every 200g of extra fruit and veg reduced the relative risk of all the outcomes by up to 18%. Some reductions were more modest, of course, but the analysis always found a benefit.

200g is not much. You can get that much by any of the options below, or a combination:

• 1 large apple, orange or pear
• 2 medium bananas or peaches
• 3 medium kiwifruit
• 1⅓ cups strawberries or grapes
• 1¼ cups blueberries, watermelon, pineapple or mango
• 1½ cups sliced carrots
• 2½ cups broccoli or cauliflower florets
• 1¼ cups green peas or corn kernels
• 1½ cups diced potato or sweet potato
• 1½–2 medium tomatoes
• 2 medium cucumbers
• 1 large capsicum
• 1 large onion
• 5-6 cups raw or 1½ cups cooked spinach or kale

Fruit and vegetables differ in their nutritional content. Contrary to popular belief, we should not be eating one “super food” all the time, but the best approach is to have as wide a variety of the foods we like and tolerate as possible. In the same meta-analysis, the fruits and vegetables that were mentioned more frequently as showing the biggest benefits include:

• apples/pears
• citrus fruits
• green leafy vegetables
• fruit juice
• cruciferous vegetables

Other fruits and vegetables mentioned less often (note that some of these overlap) include:

• berries
• vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables
• non-cruciferous vegetables
• carrots
• tomatoes
• salads
• cooked vegetables
• potatoes

How many fruits and vegetables are we eating?

It will surprise nobody to learn that most Australians do not meet the recommended intake of fruits and vegetables. Based on the latest Food and Nutrients statistics, adults consume a daily average of 159.7g of vegetables (including potatoes and dishes where vegetable is the major component) and 93.9g of fruit products and dishes (including dried fruit, preserved fruit and mixed dishes where fruit is the major component). So the population daily average is 253.6g of combined fruit and vegetables, very far away from the optimal.

Summary and recommendations

• There is overwhelming evidence that a higher fruit and vegetable intake is correlated with better health outcomes, and this is why fruit and vegetable intake is encouraged in most, if not all, dietary guidelines.
• You don’t need to eat the optimal amount to reduce your risk of chronic conditions; increasing your current intake by 200g is beneficial.
• Fruits and vegetables have similar nutrients but are not the interchangeable. Most people prefer fruits because we are evolutionarily wired to prefer sweetness. However, people who have compromised sugar metabolism would benefit from favouring vegetables rather than fruit. Side note: I think the reason we say “fruits and vegetables” instead of “vegetables and fruits” is just because it’s easier.
• Minimally processed fruit and vegetables should take precedence over processed ones. Fresh and frozen are minimally processed, dried and juiced are processed.
• We should aim to eat as wide as a variety of fruits and vegetables as we can tolerate to maximise our nutrient intake. In general, different colours signal different nutrients, and deeply-coloured foods and vegetables signal more antioxidants and other beneficial compounds.

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