ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the shift in emphasis in nutrition education from ensuring adequacy to reduce the risk of chronic, diet-related disease. High fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with increased life expectancy and reduced death rates from cardiovascular diseases. The EPIC is one of the largest and most sophisticated cohort studies ever conducted with around half-a-million subjects spread across many centres in several different European countries. The association between high fruit and vegetable intake and lower mortality has probably been proven “beyond a reasonable doubt”. It seems highly likely to be a cause and effect relationship and certainly more than meets the“on the balance of probabilities” requirements of a civil court. Plants of the onion or Allium family contain substances called s-alkylcysteine sulphoxides. When garlic cloves are crushed they release one of these sulphur-containing substances called allicin for which many health claims have been made.
