How increasing your fruit and vegetable intake will help you reach your health and fitness goals.
I don’t think there’s much debate around the beneficial effects of fruit and vegetable intake for your health and fitness, but it’s great to be reminded of the important role they play and why they deserve to make up a large portion of your food choices!
You may also see, or hear, the occasional person discredit the role plant foods have in your diet, even to the point of expressing caution.
Here’s why plant foods have an important role in your diet (like most food groups).
A 2017 report by Kew Gardens in the United Kingdom found that 28,187 plant species are known to be used as medicines throughout the world!
Fruits and veggies are full of vitamins, minerals, fiber and ‘bioactives’. Let’s look at how each of these components help:
The vitamin and mineral content of fruits and veggies has an important role in your health and fitness (as you’re probably aware).
For example, when it comes to your exercise goals, performance, and needing to recover from your workouts, Vitamin C (found predominantly in fruit and veg) is an antioxidant and plays an important role in tissue repair, it’s required for the creation of collagen (important for the health and structure of your tendons, ligaments, bone, muscles etc.), dopamine and norepinephrine (think your mood and energy) and even the creation of carnitine (energy production!) (1) (2)
And that’s just looking at a single vitamin!
The wide spectrum of vitamins and minerals found in fruits and veggies have important roles in achieving great health and fitness, so it’s smart to make sure you’re covering your bases by eating a diverse range of them.
There are many elements that make up dietary fiber, from resistant starch to insoluble fiber/soluble fiber, then these fibers branch further into fermentable or not etc. They all have significant roles in maintaining and achieving great health.
Other than the essential role fiber has for your general health, one role where it really shines is it’s contribution to your gut health!
What’s so important about your gut? I’ve discussed it here (Why You Should Include Fermented Food: Superfood), but it can impact your immune system, behaviour/mood, sleep, stress response, cognition, exercise performance/recovery, and so on.
Fiber essentially provides fuel for all of your gut bacteria. Your fiber intake is associated with microbial richness and diversity (which means good gut health) (3)
Also, each kind of vegetable/fruit has its own ‘bacterial community’ found on the surface of its skin. These ‘bacterial communities’ support and/or introduce their own number of bacterial strains to your gut. Farming practices, handling, transporting and storage also plays a role in the different bacterial communities present. (4)
This is why it’s a great idea to eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables. As mentioned above, the greater bacterial diversity (from eating a large variety), the greater your gut health.
They have identified up to 5000 bioactive compounds in fruits and veggies which all have their own impressive effects on your health.
Two examples you may be familiar with are ‘carotenoids’ and ‘polyphenols’.
For example, a group of polyphenols called ‘Flavonoids’ (citrus fruits are a rich source but is also found in veggies, coffee and tea [plants]) have anti-oxidant, antimicrobial, antimalarial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiviral, neuro- and cardio- protective properties. (5)
Here’s what the science says:
• Has a significant protective effect against many different kinds of cancers (6)
• Cardiovascular diseases: 16 systematic reviews showed a positive effect from fruit and vegetable intake on all things heart health (6)
• Immune system enhancement/anti-inflammatory effects (6)
• Improved lung health (including a protective effect on systemic/airway inflammation) (6)
• Reduced risk of cognitive impairment/decline (6)
• Important for mental health (better diet quality) (6)
• The bioactive compounds can help with arthritis (6)
• Gut health (improved microbial diversity) (6)
• Skin health (protection against UV damage, supplies essential vitamins/minerals, helps maintain appearance/health) (6)
Interestingly, the review highlighted ‘superior’ effects from cruciferous vegetables, dark-green leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, and dark coloured berries. But remember, there are benefits from including a wide diversity!
There’s a good amount of debate about the ‘anti-nutrients’ found in a lot of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains etc. This is the main argument for those who limit their consumption of plant foods.
Some of these ‘anti-nutrients’ include lectins (thought to cause inflammation, intestinal issues etc.), oxalates (kidney stone formation, reduce calcium absorption), goitrogens (thyroid dysfunction), phytoestrogens (hormone disruption), phytates and tannins (reduce mineral absorption). (7)
If this were the end of the story, I’d probably stop eating these foods too! *There’s a time and place for avoiding some of these foods (medical reasons).
However, what you have to remember is that these foods contain a lot more than just the ‘anti-nutrient’.
These foods also contain prebiotic fibers, vitamins, minerals, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds. The interaction between all of these different parts means the positive parts end up outweighing the negative parts. Two examples:
1. Tea contains lots of oxalates (the anti-nutrient where there is concern over kidney stone formation and reduced calcium absorption), yet the polyphenols and other antioxidants found in the tea may prevent stone formation! (7)
2. If you’re including a diverse and varied diet alongside your vegetable intake, by consuming enough calcium and potassium you can help reduce the oxalate effects on mineral absorption. And by including foods that are high in vitamin C, you can reduce the negative effects of phytate on mineral absorption. (7)
Not only that, but some of these ‘anti-nutrients’ themselves may be beneficial for you health.
For example, when consuming high-phytate foods such as beans, lentils, nuts, oats, rice and seeds etc., phytate may effect mineral absorption by limiting the absorption of iron, calcium, and zinc. But! the phytates can act like an ‘iron regulator’ when eaten alongside an iron rich food (like a big steak), and they may also be a powerful antioxidant that helps your immunity, inflammation, reduce kidney stone and osteoperosis risk and so on. (7)
Still worried? Using traditional cooking methods like soaking and fermentation can reduce the content of some of these ‘anti-nutrients’ like phytate.
These ‘anti-nutritional’ parts of a food may sound scary, but looking at these individual nutrients without taking into account the whole food, how it is prepared/cooked, what it is eaten with, your gut health etc. doesn’t tell the whole story.
If you have a diverse and varied diet that is full of health- and fitness-promoting foods, you don’t have to worry about the anti-nutrients found in different fruits and veggies (some of them may even be doing a lot of good – like tannins and phytates).
Two notes:
• If you have a medical issue, you may be advised to limit foods with certain anti-nutrients and/or take certain precautions.
* The existence of these anti-nutrients, and the potential health effects they may have if consumed in very large quantities is a good reminder of why it’s important to not go ‘all-in’ on a single food group.
In these foods, there is an interaction between all of the different compounds within it (I’m always talking about the importance of this ‘food matrix’). Thanks to this food matrix, the health and fitness benefits you get from the whole food is usually going to be better than if you consumed a single, isolated compound (supplement).
You also have to know what you’re doing (or working with a nutritionist) if you’re supplementing with various vitamins and minerals. Some vitamins and minerals can be toxic if you’re supplementing with them without guidance, they can have interactions you may not be aware of and/or they may need to be paired with another vitamin or mineral for your body to effectively use them.
Here are three key points from Professor A Shenkin in the paper “Micronutrients in health and disease” (2006) that summarises it well:
In other words, if you’re not working with a nutritionist or health professional (or really know what you’re doing), it’s safer just consuming a diverse range of whole foods to meet your nutritional needs.
Here are some of the global recommendations (8):
• World Health Organization: at least 400 g (five portions) of fruit and vegetables a day
• USA: two cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables for adults on diets aiming for 2000 kcal a day
• UK: five a day programme (two fruit and three vegetables of 80 g each a day)
Too hard to work out? If you struggle with the thought of working out how much you should be consuming, just focus on a greater frequency of fruit and vegetable intake. This means focusing on having some with each meal so you’re bound to reach the minimum requirement.
If you can eat more than the minimum, go for it! Some health outcomes improve with an even greater intake and some people require more (eg. if you’re training hard often).
All of the different compounds present in fruits and vegetables amass to create an impressive health- and fitness-promoting food source that plays a significant role in how you feel, look, function, and perform. For most, eating a wide variety of fruit and veg throughout the day will take care of many of your body’s micronutrient needs!
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