Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables as recommended by general dietary guidelines actually provide no extra benefits to women who go overboard on fruits and veggies in order to prevent the return of breast cancer, according to a new Government study.

The study, conducted at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and six other facilities, suggests that the meal loaded with fruits and vegetables won’t give women added protection against breast cancer, shattering hopes of those women who loaded their meal with large quantity of fruits and vegetables in anticipation of preventing return of the disease.

The 7-year-study, published in July 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded that there's no advantage to extra servings of fruits and vegetables compared to the recommended five a day.

To reach their findings, Dr. John P. Pierce of the University of California, San Diego, the lead author of the study and his colleagues studies 3,088 women who were previously treated for early stage breast cancer, and were between 18 and 70 years old at diagnosis.

Researchers divided the study subjects into two groups. They asked the one group to follow the government's recommendations for eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day, put the other group on a counseling program urging them toward a goal of five daily servings of vegetables, three servings of fruit and 16 ounces of vegetable juice.

The group assigned to take mega-veggie-and-fruit diet was also told to eat 30 grams of fiber a day and to get only 15 to 20 percent of their calories from fat.

After observing the groups for years, the researchers found no benefit from a mega rich veggie and fruit diet over the U.S. recommended diet of five or more servings a day of fruit and vegetables (the "5-A-Day" diet)

Over the course of the study, the researchers noted that 518 women had recurrences of their breast cancer and 262 eventually died of the disease. They also say none of the women lost weight on either diet, leading some experts to think that weight loss and exercise should be the next frontier for cancer prevention research.

"Clearly, there's a threshold for prevention. You don't have to go overboard. The national guidelines are good enough," said Pierce.

In order to encourage Americans to eat more healthy fruits and vegetables, the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in March had unveiled a new public health initiative, “Fruits & Veggies - More Matters”, a replacement for the 15-year-old "5 A Day for Better Health" program.