Take heart - scoop: health fitness nutrition diet supplements personal care environment - Brief Article

Vegetarian Times, Jan, 2003

By boosting their intake of fruits and vegetables to five servings per day, participants in an Oxford University study published in the June 8, 2002 issue of the British medical journal The Lancet reduced their blood pressure, which is important in warding off heart disease. Adults in the 700-participant study also increased their blood levels of five "antitoxin" vitamins, which help fight cancer.

If the general public adopted a comparable diet, researchers say we could see a decline of 17 percent in cases of high blood pressure, 6 percent in coronary heart disease and 15 percent in strokes. The savings in health care costs, which the study didn't examine, is anybody's guess.