The recommended intake standard for fruits and vegetables to prevent chronic diseases in Korea is more than 500g per day. However, the consumption of fruits and vegetables by people aged 6 or older decreased every year, with 26.2% of people consuming more than 500g as of 2020.
In addition, most vegetables are cooked in the form of soup, vegetables, and stir-fried, so they are rarely eaten raw. There are exceptions, but vegetables are recommended to be eaten raw because heat destroys nutrients or creates harmful ingredients.
Recently, it is recommended to eat a certain amount of vegetables raw in Europe, and a guide to the amount of intake is also prepared. In Germany, for example, it is recommended to eat 400g of vegetables a day, and at least 100g or 200g of vegetables are recommended to be eaten raw. In Spain, 150 grams of vegetables are recommended as salads, and in Slovakia, one-third of their daily intake is recommended as raw vegetables and fruits.
What health benefits can you enjoy if you eat vegetables raw? Researchers at the Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH) at Oxford University in the U.K. released the results of a survey on the relationship between the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and mortality when vegetables are eaten raw and cooked.
The researchers received data from 399,586 people aged 40 to 69 years from 2006 to 2010 from Biobank in the UK and followed up on fruit and vegetable intake for 12 years. As a result, 18,052 of the subjects experienced cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes, and 4,406 of them died of cardiovascular disease.
People with high vegetable intake were 15 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those with low vegetables. Eating cooked vegetables did not affect the incidence of cardiovascular disease, and the mortality rate decreased by 4%. On the other hand, when vegetables were consumed raw, the risk of cardiovascular disease decreased by 11% and the risk of death decreased by 15%. The research team analyzed that eating vegetables raw can help prevent cardiovascular disease.
Writer: Youngjun Kim
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