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News Stories - Fresh fruit and vegetables for good health

An unhealthy diet together with little exercise and smoking are the key preventable risks of non-communicable diseases and it's estimated that low fruit and vegetable intake alone causes more than two and a half million deaths each year.

Eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day ensures an adequate supply of micronutrients like vitamins but it can also reduce the amount of fatty and salty food we eat which isn't good for us. Evidence is growing about other benefits of fruit and veg. too - they can help prevent heart disease, some types of cancer, the most common form of diabetes and obesity.

The WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, who are behind the scheme, want to increase consumption in developing countries - which grow a lot of the global supply of fruit and vegetables - and also hope to encourage it in the developed world, where the popularity of convenience foods means that many people no longer eat enough fresh produce.

- vocabulary:

key: main, most important
non-communicable diseases: illnesses that are not infectious - not able to be transferred from one person to another
low fruit and vegetable intake: the eating of a small amount of fruit and vegetables - a smaller amount than recommended

micronutrients: small substances that help people to grow and remain healthy - for example, vitamins

veg: a short form of the word "vegetables", often heard in informal speech

diabetes: a medical condition in which a person's body is not able to control the level of sugar in the blood
obesity: a condition in which a person is very fat, very overweight, so that it is dangerous to their health
consumption: the eating or drinking of something. This is a formal word

convenience foods: food that can be cooked quickly without any preparation - for example, tinned, dried or frozen food
produce: food that is grown or farmed, often in large quantities to be sold