Bonduelle: we are not eating enough veggies

Did you know that eating more fruit and vegetables is the single most beneficial food measure for our health? That is one of the conclusions of the very serious Global Burden of Diseases project.

Fruit, vegetables, meat, soda, gluten… What are the health priorities when it comes to what we eat? The Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) project, which is managed by Washington University’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, suggests an answer to this question. And the project has already yielded some interesting learnings.

It quantifies the relations between our food and health, calculating the number of years of healthy life lost, depending on whether you consume too much of this and not enough of that. So, it shows what is the most important factor for gaining a few more years of healthy life (or years of life without disability and premature mortality) and corrects certain false perceptions…

More fruit and veg

In France, as in many other Western European countries and the United States, fruit and vegetables lead the ranking of foods that can have a significant health benefit:

Insufficient consumption of whole grains
Insufficient fruit consumption
Not enough nuts and seeds (France and Western Europe), and too much salt (United States)
The lack of vegetables

This means that the most important dietary risk factor, which can be modified to gain more healthy years of life, is to eat more plant-based foods!
A longer healthy life

Another conclusion: the insufficient consumption of legumes comes in 8th place in the ranking, in France as well as in Western Europe and the United States. An excess amount of processed meat, red meat, trans fatty acids or even sugary drinks come after the insufficient consumption of fruit, vegetables and legumes.

So it’s high time to focus on your nutritional priorities: in order to ensure a longer healthy life, just eat more fruit and vegetables, whole grains and legumes.