[Photo/IC]

Japanese researchers have found that higher total intake of fruit and vegetable (FV) was significantly associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in Japan, according to an article published Wednesday on the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"We examined associations of FV intake with mortality risk from total CVD, stroke and coronary heart diseases (CHDs) in a representative Japanese sample," said the researchers who made a 24-year follow-up study.

A total of 9,112 participants aged from 24-year follow-up data in the NIPPON DATA80 (National Integrated Project for Prospective Observation of Non-communicable Disease And its Trends in the Aged) of which baseline data were obtained in the National Nutrition Survey Japan in 1980 were studied.

Participants were divided into sex-specific quartiles of energy adjusted intake of FV. "Multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated between strata of the total of FV intake, fruit intake and vegetable intake," they said. "The adjustment included age, sex, smoking, drinking habit and energy adjusted intakes of sodium and some other food groups."

The results showed that "participants with higher FV intake were older, ate more fish, milk and dairy products and soybeans and legumes and ate less meat".

Multivariate-adjusted HR for the highest versus the lowest quartile of the total of FV intake was 0.74 for total CVD, 0.80 for stroke and 0.57 for CHD, the results showed.

There have been few studies on the association of FV intake with CVD risk in Asian populations where both dietary habits and disease structure are different from western countries. No study in Asia has found its significant association with stroke.