How do they know? The government used to tell us 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day was enough. Now they are saying that 2 cups of fruits and 2 ½ cups of vegetables are enough, equivalent to nine servings in the old system. What will their recommendations be in a few years?
I submit to you that the governments’ official dietary guidelines are a mix of science, lobbying by corporate interests, and practicality. Call me cynical, but what I’ve seen in over 18 years of studying nutrition has only reinforced this opinion. What the science says about the amount that you really need for optimal health is not really the same as what the government’s dietary guidelines say.
So, how do you know how many fruits and vegetables to eat? What does the scientific literature say? We could start by looking at healthy dietary patterns in populations and seeing how many servings of fruits and vegetables they eat. Is there a dietary pattern that gives outstanding health? We could argue about this for a while – Paleo, low-carb, vegetarian, vegan, raw food, etc. But scientists generally point to the Mediterranean Diet as a population-based dietary pattern with better than average health outcomes. The Mediterranean Diet has 7 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day in it, maybe a bit more if you are a big eater. So, there is a benchmark of how many fruits and vegetables you need.
However, while health on the Mediterranean Diet is better than the average diet in the USA, I still think it is less than optimal. People eating the Mediterranean Diet have fewer heart attacks, less cancer, less diabetes, but the rates that are as low as they could be. There is an even better plant-based diet for optimal health. When raw fruits and vegetables, including vegetable juice and green smoothies, take center-stage as they do in the Hallelujah Diet, then health outcomes improve even more.
For example, in a study of 30 men and women suffering with fibromyalgia who followed such a diet for six months, 19 of them responded very well, with much lower bodily pain, better range of motion, more endurance, and better overall health.1 And this study did not even take into account underlying issues such as candida overgrowth and heavy metal toxicity – conditions which sometime require modifications of the Hallelujah Diet. Many personal stories resonate with these study results as well. It works. Not all of the time, and not 100% for everybody, but it does work.
How many fruits and vegetables do people like this eat? A survey of 7-day diet records from 141 “Hallelujah vegetarians” found that on average they ate 6.6 servings of fruit and 11.4 servings of vegetables a day2 – a total of 18 servings a day. That’s a lot.
Another way to tell how many fruits and vegetables a person should eat is to look at blood carotenoids. Carotenoids, like beta-carotene from carrots, yams, pumpkins, and greens, lycopene from tomatoes and watermelon, and lutein and zeaxanthin from dark leafy greens, show up in the blood at about the same proportions that they appear in the diet. Recently, a Carotenoid Health Index was published, showing that at a level above 4 µM of total carotenoids in the blood there was a low risk of chronic disease.3 How does the USA population fare on this index? Among this population, the 50th percentile of total carotenoids is about 1.0 µM, with about 40 percent of that coming from tomatoes, probably ketchup and pasta/pizza sauce. The 90th percentile is still a paltry 2.3 µM, far from a protective level.
What about carotenoid levels for people following the Mediterranean Diet? One study showed that volunteers in France had an average of 2.1 µM for men and 2.6 for women, which is a lot better than the USA population. What about for “Hallelujah vegetarians”? A survey of total carotenoid levels for 67 adults mostly following this dietary plan showed the 50th percentile in this group was 5.9 µM, with a range from 2.5 µM to almost 16 µM. The blood doesn’t lie. These people really do eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.
So, if the health outcomes from this dietary pattern are as good as portrayed, and if they really do eat 18 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, how in the world do they do it? And how can we do it?
Vegetable juice, including carrot juice, is part of it. Big salads are also a part. Powdered green drinks loaded with dark leafy greens are a part. Green smoothies are a part. Fruits and vegetables are a major part of every meal on Hallelujah Diet. You have to major in raw fruits and vegetables, not just dabble in them. And then you will get the health outcomes that you really want.
So, don’t wait for the government to ever admit that you need to dramatically change your diet. You’ll die before you ever hear that message from any official source. There is too much money and power involved to get the unvarnished truth from government nutrition guidelines. But if you give it a good try, you will experience a very serious upgrade to your health as you radically increase the amounts of fruits and vegetables you eat.
References
- Donaldson M, Speight N, Loomis S. Fibromyalgia syndrome improved using a mostly raw vegetarian diet: An observational study. BMC Complement. Altern. Med. 2001;1(1):7. doi:10.1186/1472-6882-1-7.
- Donaldson MS. Food and nutrient intake of Hallelujah vegetarians. Nutr. Food Sci. 2001;31(6):293-303. doi:10.1108/00346650110409128.
- Donaldson MS. A Carotenoid Health Index Based on Plasma Carotenoids and Health Outcomes. Nutrients 2011;3(12):1003-1022. doi:10.3390/nu3121003.
About the Author: Michael Donaldson, Ph.D., is research director for Hallelujah Diet, a comprehensive, preventative system empowering people to take charge of their health by activating the body’s self-healing powers. Dr. Donaldson has spent 16 years studying people who have experienced health benefits of Hallelujah Diet, and published scientific research on benefits of the diet for fighting fibromyalgia, cancer, diabetes and other ailments. For more information, visit www.MyHDiet.com.
