Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard says eating fruit reduces chances of getting cancer

November 22, 2016

Every day I aim to eat more than five portions of fruit and veg because from my own research and what I’ve read, I believe it’s the best way to safeguard my health.

Indeed in other countries, the quota’s higher — in Australia, for instance, it’s seven, in Japan it’s ten.

So I read yesterday’s comments in the Mail by top GP Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard with interest.

She believes that the five-a-day target is ‘not achievable’ because it is too expensive a goal for low-income families.

Her view is that doctors should stop issuing something so unachievable and instead: ‘should give them the advice that anything is better than nothing’.

It’s true that something is better than nothing — research I’ve conducted found that people who eat one to three portions a day have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death than those who eat none.

However it’s also true that the more fruit and vegetables people eat, the lower their risk of all these, with the lowest risk in people who eat seven or more portions a day.

The fact is the five-a-day message is arbitrary guidance not based on strong evidence that this is the exact amount to aim for.

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In 1990 the World Health Organisation set the daily amount of 400g on the basis that it was achievable.

Public health officials here then decided that a realistic portion of fruit and vegetables is 80g and that’s how the five-a-day message came to be — by dividing 400 by 80.

I do wonder when people worry about the cost of fruit and vegetables if they forget about the abundance of cheap home-grown produce available.

Perhaps they get confused by the concept of ‘superfoods’ and think they have to eat avocados or blueberries, when you can get a bag of radishes for 20p which would probably contain as much as two portions.

Public health officials here then decided that a realistic portion of fruit and vegetables is 80g and that’s how the five-a-day message came to be — by dividing 400 by 80

And people could make other changes, for example by cutting back on meat which is far more expensive, and use the money saved to buy fruit and veg.

My view is that fruit and veg should make up the majority of our diet.

But while science shows the benefits of eating more fruit and veg there is psychology involved in knowing what messages motivate people to do so and I don’t know why Dr Stokes-Lampard felt that telling people they could reduce their portions of fruit and veg would be helpful.

I don’t know where she gets the evidence for this and she may just confuse people.

For unlike most other things in life, when it comes to fruit and veg, more is definitely better.

Dr Oyinlola Oyedobe is based at Warwick University.

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