Inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables is estimated to cause some 2.7 million deaths worldwide each year, two United Nations agencies charged with overseeing agriculture and health said as they kicked off a campaign to improve the world's nutrition.a

"There is strong and growing evidence that sufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables helps prevent many diseases and promotes good health, but large parts of the world's population consume too little of these," World Health Organisation Director Pekka Puska told WHO's annual Global Forum on Non-communicable Disease Prevention and Control, meeting this year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

To promote consumption of fruit and vegetables, prevailing diets need to be more assessed for their nutrition and health implications, Kraisid Tontisirin, Director of the Food and Agricultural Organisation's Food and Nutrition Division, said.

A recently published report by nutrition experts, jointly convened by FAO and WHO, recommends a minimum of 400 grams of fruit and vegetables per day, excluding starchy vegetables, for the prevention of heart disease, cancer, Type 2 diabetes and obesity.