Eat Fruit & Vegetables|Prevent Heart Attacks|Cost of Food

Eight servings of fruit & vegetables a day helps prevent heart attacks & heart disease. What’s the cost of food when eating that much fruit & veggies?

Eat Lots of Fruits and Vegetables - From Dr. Gabe Mirkin’s Fitness and Health E-Zine February 6, 2011

“Increasing fruit and vegetable intake from five to eight servings a day prevents heart attacks and prolongs life. For every additional serving above two per day, there is a four percent decrease in the rate of heart disease deaths (European Heart Journal, January 18, 2011).

Not eating enough fruits and vegetables is a major risk factor, in itself, for heart attacks and premature death. Eight servings a day of fruits and vegetables will weigh approximately one and a half pounds.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture have just released a report recommending that Americans eat vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fat-free milk, seafood, eggs, beans, peas, nuts and seeds; restrict salt, refined sugars, fats, and refined grains.”

The above quote from Dr. Mirkin rang a lot of Savvy Vegetarian bells and a few sirens went off too:

It was mind boggling to me that anyone could eat only TWO servings of fruits and vegetables per day. In many cases that would be a side of fries and burger fixings, which I’m not sure even counts as 2 servings. So I looked at some facts and figures on the cost of food, and it’s not surprising that most people don’t eat much fruit and veg.

1. What would 1 1/2 lb, or 8 servings, of fruit and veg look like? And cost? Here’s a rough estimate, based on our grocery bills for the last month: 1 organic banana: $0.50, 1 organic apple: $0.75, handful of raisins: $0.25, 1 carrot: $0.25, 1 cup chopped organic broccoli: $0.50, 1/2 cup frozen peas: $0.25, 1 cup chopped kale: $0.25, 1 cup chopped butternut squash: $0.50

2. 1 1/2 lb of fruit and vegetables per day for each adult in our house averages around $3.25 . That’s $97.50 per month to reduce your heart attack risk by 24%. Some people might think that’s a lot of money to spend on vegetables and fruit, but to me it looks like cheap health insurance, especially if you also substitute less expensive legumes for meat.

3. What effect could reducing your meat intake have on your heart attack risk? The answer came from a long-term study of 85,000 female nurses at Harvard School of Public Health: swapping one serving of red meat per day for one serving of beans lowers a woman’s long-term heart-disease risk by about 33%.

4. Replacing a daily serving of red meat with one of several other foods — including nuts (30 percent), fish (24 percent), chicken or other poultry (19 percent), and low-fat dairy (13 percent) — will also reduce heart-disease risk, the study found.

5. For our household of vegetarians and vegans, fruit and vegetables are our single biggest food expense, at least 1/2 of our monthly food budget. According to the USDA, an average family of four could expect to spend $954.50 per month on groceries. The USDA assumes that the family cooks all their own food, which isn’t that common. Anyway, if that pretend family ate 8 servings of fruit & veg a day, at a cost of $390 per month, that leaves $560 to spend on the rest of their food.

6. According to the USDA, 1 1/2 lb of meat, poultry or fish costs about 50% more than 1 1/2 lb of fruit and vegetables, so if the family of four ate that much every day, it would cost them $585 per month. Chances are good that they can’t afford to eat 8 servings a day of fruit and vegetables, organic or otherwise - not even if they never eat out, never eat expensive processed food, and budget extremely carefully. I wonder how many families with 2 working parents and a couple of kids do all that on a regular basis?

Here’s my conclusion: Eating much less expensive legumes and whole grains instead of animal products will save you enough money to eat 8 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, with enough cash left over for a handful of nuts and seeds. It will also significantly improve your nutrition, overall well-being, and lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other health problems, so you’ll save on health costs too. Of course, if you can cook at home, and pack homemade lunches - all the better.

More About Eating Vegetables:

Get Your Kids to Eat More Vegetables and Love It

Eight Ways to Get Your Family to Eat Vegetables

Savvy Vegetarian Vegetable Recipes

Vegetable Nutrition Facts

Tags: Dr. Mirkin, fruit and vegetables, heart attacks, Heart disease, vegan, vegetarian

 Print This Post Posted in Diet,Food Blog,Health Blog,Nutrition,Veg News 2 Comments