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More news for National Nutrition Month: Last month we reported on important support for the benefits of a well-run workplace wellness program that focuses on diet, nutrition, and even smoking cessation.

The New York Times reported that “each additional daily serving of fruits and vegetables that smokers and former smokers eat is associated with a 4 to 8 percent lower risk of their developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the third leading cause of death in the United States.”

Now the American Heart Association reports that “Globally, increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables could save millions of years lost to disability and premature death from heart disease, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health 2017 Scientific Sessions.”

“Researchers used nutritional surveys and consumer expenditure surveys as well as data from previous studies on the impact of low fruit and vegetable consumption on the risk of heart disease to calculate the number of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) – healthy years lost to heart-disease-related disability or death – for 195 countries.”

The researchers found that, in 2015:

• Low intake of fruits accounted for 57.3 million DALYs;
• Low intake of vegetables accounted for 44.6 million DALYs;
• Countries with the highest level of socio-economic development had the lowest burden of heart disease attributed to low fruit and vegetable consumption.

The post ends: “The researchers conclude that population-based interventions to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables could lead to millions more years of healthy life worldwide.”