Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025

Eating veggies won't protect your heart, study says, but critics disagree

Eating veggies won't protect your heart, study says, but critics disagree

Eating a plant-based diet has been shown to be very good for your heart and your overall health, as well as that of the planet. In fact, a recent study found a young person could live an additional 13 years by eating more vegetables and legumes, as well as whole grains, fruit and nuts.

Which makes the findings of a new analysis of the diets of nearly 400,000 UK adults published Monday in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition rather startling: Eating veggies, especially cooked ones, doesn't reduce your risk of heart disease over time.

"Our large study did not find evidence for a protective effect of vegetable intake on the occurrence of CVD (cardiovascular disease)," said Qi Feng, an epidemiologist at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, in a statement.

While the study found eating raw veggies could protect against heart disease, cooked vegetables did not. Any benefit went away when researchers factored in lifestyle factors such as physical activity, educational level, smoking, drinking, fruit intake, red and processed meat consumption, and use of mineral and vitamin supplements.

"Instead, our analyses show that the seemingly protective effect of vegetable intake against CVD risk is very likely to be accounted for by bias ... related to differences in socioeconomic situation and lifestyle," Feng said.

Not so fast, critics say


Don't start celebrating yet, veggie haters. Experts in the UK and United States quickly took exception to the study's conclusion.

"Although this study found that eating more vegetables wasn't associated with a lower risk of heart and circulatory diseases once other lifestyle and other factors were taken into account, that doesn't mean we should stop eating vegetables," said Victoria Taylor, a senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, in a statement.

"There is good trial evidence that eating foods rich in fibre such as vegetables, can help lower weight, and improve levels of risk factors known to cause heart disease. The present observational study cannot overcome such evidence and its conclusions can be debated since the authors may have over adjusted for factors that account for lower intake of vegetables," said Naveed Sattar, a professor of cardiovascular and metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, in a statement.

"The results are not surprising. Picking out one single component and assuming just adding it to the diet, e.g., vegetables, is not likely to result in the desired effect," Alice Lichtenstein, director and senior scientist at Tufts University's Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory, told CNN in an email.

"One thing that has become clear over the past decade is we should not be looking at single foods or nutrients, rather the whole dietary pattern," said Lichtenstein, who is also a Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

Only 5 tablespoons of vegetables


The study used data from the UK Biobank, a longitudinal study of nearly a half a million UK adults designed to investigate how genetics and environment contribute to many common diseases.

People were asked at the beginning of the study how many raw and cooked vegetables they ate, and then followed for over 10 years to see if they developed heart disease.

On average, people in the UK study reported eating an average of 5 tablespoons of vegetables each day -- that's only 71 grams or one-third of a cup. About 2.5 tablespoons were raw vegetables, the other three were cooked.

"That's so little," said Dr. Andrew Freeman, co-chair of the American College of Cardiology's Nutrition and Lifestyle Work Group.

Dietary guidelines in the UK call for five portions of fruits and veggies a day, with each portion being about 80 grams (1 cup), for a total of 5 cups a day.

In the US, dietary guidelines are more specific, recommending most adults eat at least 1.5 to 2 cups of fruit and 2 to 3 cups of vegetables each day as part of a healthy diet. Translating cups into tablespoons, a healthy intake of vegetables would include up to 48 tablespoons of veggies each day.

"That's a ton of tablespoons," Freeman said. "So the question is: If these people in the study were eating such a very small amount of vegetables, what else are they eating and how much did that confound these results?"

Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of nutrition at the University of Reading in the UK, also pointed to the impact of alternate food choices.

"People who don't eat vegetables need to eat something else -- and when estimating the health effect of eating vegetables it is important to consider what they replace," Kuhnle said in a statement.

"Replacing a sugary snack with carrot sticks is likely to improve health -- and have a beneficial effect on CVD risk. That wouldn't be the case when replacing a whole-grain snack with carrots," he said.

What's the takeway for the vegetable eating (and hating) public?

"This is a very interesting study -- but not one that should be used as a justification to stop eating vegetables," Kuhnle said.

"The best advice we can give people is to focus on their whole diet, what foods to emphasize as well as what to minimize," Lichtenstein said. "In general, I think the data still supports beneficial effects of a dietary pattern rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fish, fat-free and low fat dairy and relatively low in added sugar and salt."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
×