If you eat canned or frozen fruits and vegetables, you’re more likely to die, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
After examining the diet — and ability to survive — of a random sample of 65,000 British citizens, UK researchers concluded eating seven servings of vegetables and fruit daily considerably reduces a person’s risk of dying. But the study also indicates that a person’s death risk increases by 17 percent if the fruits and vegetables consumed are frozen, reported Forbes.
Canned and frozen fruits were lumped together, but authors suspect the sugar in canned fruit is the culprit, since Brits eat four times as many canned as frozen fruits, reported Forbes. “Might refined sugars be acting as the concealed villain in this Shakespearean drama?” they wrote in an editorial. “Consider, gentle reader.”
Participants in the study who ate seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day were 42 percent less likely to die from any cause, compared to those who ate one or fewer servings per day. Ovinlola Oyebode, one of the researchers, told Forbes, “The clear message here is that the more fruits and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to die at any age.”
Unless they’re canned or frozen.