Key TakeawaysEating more vegetables is a cornerstone piece of advice for creating a heart-healthy diet.However, a recent study suggested that compared to socioeconomic and lifestyle factors for cardiovascular disease, your vegetable intake may not play as big a role.The study did have some limitations. Experts also point out that the many health benefits of including vegetables in your diet go beyond heart health.
Key Takeaways
Eating more vegetables is a cornerstone piece of advice for creating a heart-healthy diet.However, a recent study suggested that compared to socioeconomic and lifestyle factors for cardiovascular disease, your vegetable intake may not play as big a role.The study did have some limitations. Experts also point out that the many health benefits of including vegetables in your diet go beyond heart health.
Eating plenty of veggies often tops the list of dietary advice for a heart-healthy diet because they’re a rich and varied source of nutrients. They’re also naturally low in sodium and saturated fat—two diet components that are linked to heart disease risk.
Cardiovascular disease is thenumber one cause of deathglobally.
However, a new study published inFrontiers in Nutritionhas raised questions about whether eating your veggies plays a major role in promoting—or protecting—your heart health.
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The Study
The researchers looked at the effects of vegetable intake on heart disease risk and outcomes. Specifically, they wanted to see if there would be different effects from eating raw veggies compared to cooked veggies.
Who Was Included?
Using data from the UK Biobank cohort, the researchers looked at almost 400,000 people who did not havecardiovascular diseaseat the start of the study.
The participants answered a dietary questionnaire that asked them about their intake of raw and cooked vegetables.
The researchers analyzed the data to see if there was a link between participants’ vegetable intake and being diagnosed with heart disease and/or dying from the disease.
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What Did the Findings Show?
During 12 years of follow-up, the researchers noted that eating more raw vegetables was linked to a reduced risk of getting heart disease or dying from it. They did not see the same link with cooked vegetables.
However, vegetable intake wasn’t the only thing that set the people with higher and lower heart disease risk apart.
The people who ate more vegetables were also more likely to haveother factorsthat could have affected their risk for heart disease. For example, the participants were more likely to:
When the researchers looked at the data more closely, they factored in socioeconomic and lifestyle variables—likesmoking,supplement use, andexercising—that can affect heart disease risk.
They concluded that these factors appeared to have a bigger effect on a person’s heart disease risk than their vegetable intake.
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Don’t Count Veggies Out Yet
The study might make it sound like eating your veggies isn’t as important to your heart health as you’ve been told—but don’t count them out just yet.
The research had some limitations that are important to understand.
Study Limitations
Taylor C. Wallace,PhD, CFS, FACN, the chief food and nutrition scientist at Produce for Better Health Foundation, told Verywell that there were some other “watch outs” to consider when looking at the study’s data.
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Variables
Wallace, who was not involved in the research, questioned whether some of the variables in the study were important.
While the study adjusted for far more variables than he deems normal, Wallace pointed out that “an issue with nutrition epidemiology, in general, is that you can easily ‘over-correct,’ which leads to null findings.”
Looking at All the Data
However, that detail was not included study’s abstract.
Wallace said that if you look at all the data, the “adjustment for all these covariates didn’t make a difference in regard to all-cause mortality.” That suggests that there is “still a large protective effect of cooked and raw vegetables.”
Therefore, Wallace said that the reported findings don’t really tell the full story.
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Timing
Wallace pointed out that the participants’ vegetable intake was only assessed at the start of the study, “which makes the study a very weak and ill-designed prospective cohort study that has limited utility.”
Research that Wallace has been part of showing the benefits of veggies on heart health took a different approach.
His team used validated food frequency questionnaires that participants answered more than once over time.According to Wallace, this matters because a person’s dietary patterns often change.
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Cooking Method
Potatoesare one example. Fried potatoes may have a negative effect on heart health, but baked or boiled potatoes may have positive—or at least neutral—effects.
“Not accounting for factors like this is equivalent to throwing dice down a roulette table and then claiming the game is impossible to win at because you lost,” said Wallace.
Bottom line? Given the study’s limitations and conflicting results highlighted in other studies, people shouldn’t quit veggies because they think it won’t matter to their heart health.
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A Heart-Healthy Diet
Even if vegetables aren’t the key player, your dietary choices still have a profound and lasting effect on the wellness of your whole body—your heart included.
Melissa Azzaro, RDN, LD, a registered dietitian and podcast host atHormonally Yours, told Verywell that “following theMediterranean diet, theDASH diet, and theTLC diethave all been shown to support heart health.”
Azzaro said that “while all of these diets have some differences among the guidelines, they all emphasize vegetables as a part of a suggested dietary pattern.”
Ultimately, Azzaro said that “eating a nutrient-dense, whole-foods based diet that is high infiber, antioxidants, and healthyfatswhile being mindful of refinedcarbohydratesandadded sugarsappear to be your best bet when trying to support heart health.”
What This Means For YouEating your veggies is still key for supporting your overall health, even if it’s not a be-it-end-all for reducing your risk of heart disease.Be sure to include a variety of produce in your diet according to the recommendations and guidelines.
What This Means For You
Eating your veggies is still key for supporting your overall health, even if it’s not a be-it-end-all for reducing your risk of heart disease.Be sure to include a variety of produce in your diet according to the recommendations and guidelines.
Eating your veggies is still key for supporting your overall health, even if it’s not a be-it-end-all for reducing your risk of heart disease.
Be sure to include a variety of produce in your diet according to the recommendations and guidelines.
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3 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.World Health Organization.Cardiovascular disease.Feng Q, Kim JH, Omiyale W, et al.Raw and cooked vegetable consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease: a study of 400,000 adults in UK Biobank.Front Nutr. 2022;9:831470. doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.831470Wallace TC, Bailey RL, Blumberg JB, et al.Fruits, vegetables, and health: a comprehensive narrative, umbrella review of the science and recommendations for enhanced public policy to improve intake.Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr.2020;60(13):2174-2211. doi:10.1080/10408398.2019.1632258
3 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.World Health Organization.Cardiovascular disease.Feng Q, Kim JH, Omiyale W, et al.Raw and cooked vegetable consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease: a study of 400,000 adults in UK Biobank.Front Nutr. 2022;9:831470. doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.831470Wallace TC, Bailey RL, Blumberg JB, et al.Fruits, vegetables, and health: a comprehensive narrative, umbrella review of the science and recommendations for enhanced public policy to improve intake.Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr.2020;60(13):2174-2211. doi:10.1080/10408398.2019.1632258
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
World Health Organization.Cardiovascular disease.Feng Q, Kim JH, Omiyale W, et al.Raw and cooked vegetable consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease: a study of 400,000 adults in UK Biobank.Front Nutr. 2022;9:831470. doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.831470Wallace TC, Bailey RL, Blumberg JB, et al.Fruits, vegetables, and health: a comprehensive narrative, umbrella review of the science and recommendations for enhanced public policy to improve intake.Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr.2020;60(13):2174-2211. doi:10.1080/10408398.2019.1632258
World Health Organization.Cardiovascular disease.
Feng Q, Kim JH, Omiyale W, et al.Raw and cooked vegetable consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease: a study of 400,000 adults in UK Biobank.Front Nutr. 2022;9:831470. doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.831470
Wallace TC, Bailey RL, Blumberg JB, et al.Fruits, vegetables, and health: a comprehensive narrative, umbrella review of the science and recommendations for enhanced public policy to improve intake.Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr.2020;60(13):2174-2211. doi:10.1080/10408398.2019.1632258
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