Vegetables

Research summary

• A large meta-analysis of prospective cohorts, together with a dose-response meta-analysis linking fruit and vegetable intake to lower cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality, provides consistent support for a cardiometabolic benefit of higher vegetable intake.
• Supporting mechanistic evidence on specific plant compounds (quercetin, kaempferol, anthocyanins, potassium) helps explain plausible biological pathways, though these are reviews of bioactivity rather than outcome trials in themselves.
• The dose-response relationship is well replicated across very large combined cohorts, giving reasonably strong confidence in the association, while the precise contribution of vegetables specifically (versus overall dietary pattern) is harder to isolate from observational data alone.