Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a global burden and varies between regions. This regional variation has been linked in part to dietary factors and low fruit and vegetable intake has been associated with higher rates of CVD. This review assessed the effectiveness of increasing fruit and vegetable consumption as a single intervention without the influence of other dietary patterns or other lifestyle modifications in healthy adults and those at high risk of CVD for the prevention of CVD. We found 10 trials involving 1730 participants in which six examined the provision of fruit and vegetables to increase intake and four trials examined dietary advice to increase fruit and vegetable intake. There were variations in the type of fruit and vegetable provided but all interventions investigating provision involved only one fruit or vegetable component. There were also variations in the number of fruit and vegetables that participants were advised to eat. Some studies advised participants to eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day while others advised at least eight or nine servings per day.The duration of the interventions ranged from three months to one year. Adverse effects were reported in three of the included trials and included increased bowel movements, bad breath and body odour. None of the included trials were long enough to examine the effect of increased fruit and vegetable consumption on cardiovascular disease events such as heart attacks. There was no strong evidence that provision of one type of fruit or vegetable had beneficial effects on blood pressure and lipid levels but most trials were short term. There was some evidence to suggest beneficial effects of dietary advice to increase fruit and vegetable consumption but this is based on findings from two trials. More trials are needed to confirm these findings.