A variety of fresh fruit and vegetables. - Photos by Barbara Ellington/Lifestyle Editor

A healthy serving of vegetables will alleviate the symptoms of Premenstrual Disphoric Disorder and prevent many diseases.

What food can you eat as much as you want of without gaining weight? The answer, nutritionists say, is vegetables.

It is possible to eat as much vegetables as you can hold and still remain the same weight, says Kingston-based nutritionist Donovan Grant.

He cautions, however, "This is once there is no mayonnaise and other fatty salad dressing added. Vegetables are mostly water."

Another caveat, he adds, is that vegetables that are prepared with heat will add more calories than if eaten in the raw.

Vegetables are excellent, states Kingston-based nutritionist Paul Johnson, but he also notes that if all you eat is vegetables then you will have no space to consume other nutrients and you will run into nutritional problems.

"A diet made up completely of vegetables will push aside other foods needed for essential nutrients."

He adds, "It is a fact that vegetables as a rule are not fattening and mostly consist of fibre and water, so increasing vegetable consumption will go a far way in helping one to lose weight."

Other researchers note that if you love your arteries you should eat your vegetables. The latest dietary guidelines call for five to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, depending on one's caloric intake. For a person who needs 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight and health, this translates into nine servings, or 4¹/² cups per day.

There is evidence that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

One set of researchers found that mice fed a vegetable-rich diet cut their risk for atherosclerosis - hardening of the arteries - by 38 per cent. The average Jamaican does not eat nearly enough fruits and vegetables.

The largest and longest study to date, done as part of the Harvard-based Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, indicates that the higher the average daily intake of fruits and vegetables, the lower the chances of developing cardiovascular disease.

Compared with those in the lowest category of fruit and vegetable intake (less than 1.5 servings a day), those who averaged eight or more servings a day were 30 per cent less likely to have had a heart attack or stroke.

Partial information source: http://www.forbes.com/health/ and http://www.hsph .harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fruits.html