PURE — Fruit, vegetable, and legume intake and risk of cardiovascular disease and deaths
In plain English
PURE followed 135,000 adults across 18 countries — high-, middle- and low-income — for diet and mortality. Higher intake of fruit, vegetables and legumes was associated with lower cardiovascular and total mortality. PURE's separate dairy and fat findings caused controversy, but the fruit/veg/legume signal is in the same direction as nearly every other large cohort.
Why it matters
Higher fruit, vegetable and legume intake → lower mortality globally.
Informs: Diabetes·Plant-Based Score
Provenance
- Design
- Prospective cohort
- Sample size (n)
- 135,000
- Follow-up
- 7 years
- Peer-reviewed
- Yes
- Replications
- 2
- Funding
- Mixed (public + private/non-profit)
- Funders
- Population Health Research Institute, national research grants
- Institutions
- Population Health Research Institute (McMaster University)
decades.plus score
A transparent 0–100 weighted sum across six components. Higher scores reflect bigger, cleaner, more replicated work.
Caveats
PURE has been criticised for FFQ methodology and for some over-stated headline conclusions on fat and dairy. The fruit/veg/legume finding is the most replicated and least controversial slice.
