Vegetable juice can help fill the "vegetable gap"

Washington, Oct 21 (ANI): Although vegetable intake is known to provide significant health benefits, still eight out of 10 people worldwide fall short of the daily recommendation. Now, a new study has revealed that addition of vegetable juice in daily intake can help cover the gap.

Researchers from University of California-Davis have revealed that addition of vegetable juice in people's diets was a successful strategy to help them reach the vegetable guidelines (at least 4 servings per day).

The addition of a portable drink, such as V8, 100pct vegetable juice, was more successful than an approach that focused solely on nutrition education, or offering dietary counselling on ways to increase vegetable intake.

For the study, the team recruited adults aged 40-65 years, who drank at least two cups of vegetable juice.

It showed that those with borderline high blood pressure who drank one to two servings of V8 juice lowered their blood pressure significantly.

The vegetable juice drinkers said they enjoyed the juice and felt like they were doing something good for themselves by drinking it.

"Enjoyment is so critical to developing eating habits you can stick with for the long-term," said study co-author Dr Carl Keen, Professor of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at the University of California-Davis.

"Health and nutrition professionals must help people find simple ways for people to get their vegetables or they simply won't do it, and that means they won't reap the benefits of a vegetable-rich diet.

"Vegetable juice is something that people enjoy, plus it's convenient and portable, which makes it simple to drink every day," Keen added.

Research conducted at the Baylor College of Medicine revealed that drinking vegetable juice helped overweight individuals with metabolic syndrome lose more weight compared to non-juice drinkers.

Those who drank one to two servings of Low Sodium V8 100pct vegetable juice a day as part of a balanced diet increased their vegetable intake and lost an average of four pounds over the 12-week study period.

The study was presented at the International Symposium on Human Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables. (ANI)