Eating more fruits and veggies doesn’t seem to lower the chance of dying from cancer, based on the available evidence.
Scientific Claim
Higher consumption of fruit and vegetables is not appreciably associated with reduced risk of cancer mortality, with pooled hazard ratios near 1.0 for total, fruit, and vegetable intake.
Original Statement
“Higher consumption of fruit and vegetables was not appreciably associated with risk of cancer mortality... The hazard ratio for cancer mortality was 0.97 (95% confidence interval 0.90 to 1.03; P=0.31)... 0.99 (0.97 to 1.00; P=0.06) for fruit... and 0.99 (0.97 to 1.01; P=0.19) for vegetables.”
Evidence Quality Assessment
Claim Status
appropriately stated
Study Design Support
Design supports claim
Appropriate Language Strength
association
Can only show association/correlation
Assessment Explanation
The authors correctly state 'not appreciably associated' and report non-significant hazard ratios with overlapping confidence intervals. No causal language is used, aligning with observational design constraints.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (0)
Contradicting (1)
The study says eating more fruits and veggies doesn’t really lower cancer deaths, which matches part of the claim—but it also shows they greatly lower overall and heart-related deaths, which the claim ignores, making the claim misleading.