High fruit and vegetable intake is only modestly associated with lower overall cancer risk, according to findings from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study.

The study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute recently. Among 9,604 men and 21,000 women with cancer.

Those who consumed 200 grams of fruits and vegetables a day -- akin to eating one medium apple with skin -- had approximately 2.5 percent lower cancer risk compared to those who ate less than 200 grams.

The cancer risk is considered small. But, as Pam Popper writes in her blog on vegsource.com, the inferences drawn from the study -- that eating fruits and veggies isn't really going to help you avoid or survive cancer -- would be incorrect.

Popper argues that "this study's structure and conclusions are indicative of a major problem plaguing research studies that attempt to establish a relationship between diet and health.  Scientists tend to structure studies that evaluate the effects of individual nutrients or foods, or small variations in less-than-optimal diets on health, instead of looking at the totality of the diet. ...

"Those of us who are recommending a well-structured plant-based diet as a means for preventing, stopping the progression of, and even reversing disease, are achieving spectacular results by teaching people to make sweeping changes in their diets, not by adding or restricting one food or by making small changes in their eating patterns."