Fruits and vegetables prevent heart attack

Fruits and vegetables prevent heart attack and stroke

22/01/2011

Eight daily servings of fruit and vegetables reduce the risk of death by 22 percent, according to a newly published EPIC Heart Study. While dietary supplements in the pharmaceutical and food industries are performing worse and better in terms of health care, the recently published EPIC Heart Study shows that around 8 servings of fruit and vegetables are sufficient to effectively prevent cardiovascular disease. The mortality rate is therefore reduced by up to 22 percent when adults eat at least 640 grams of grams of different fruits and vegetables per day. The results impressively prove that it is the naturalness of the product that counts, and not the split-off pharmaceutical products, which generally lack the interplay of other important active ingredients.

Dietary supplement with little effect
While fresh fruit and vegetables in the EPIC Heart Study 2010 could sustainably reduce the risk of illness, dietary supplements were pretty badly missed in other studies. The researchers found that supplemental vitamin supplements can not replace a healthy natural diet. Nutritional supplements containing vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid in the SU.FOL.OM3 study hardly had a protective effect after a heart attack or stroke.

Study observed European fruit and vegetable consumption
In the course of the study, the researchers evaluated Dr. Francesca L. Crowe of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford, outlined the data for 313,074 men and women aged 45 to 85 years of age. The researchers focused on a total of eight European countries. During the eight-year study period, a total of 1636 people died of various diseases such as heart attack or stroke. The mean age of the subjects was 54 years at the beginning of the study.

The more fruits and vegetables the lower the relative risk of death
The result can be summarized quickly. The daily average intake of fruits and vegetables in European countries is around 240 grams. However, if the daily consumption increases and the participants ate about eight portions of 80 grams each of different fruits and vegetables, the mortality rate dropped by a whopping 22 percent. Those who consumed three to four servings could at least reduce the risk rate by 10 percent. Anyone who consumed five to seven fruit and vegetable snacks per day was able to reduce the risk by 21 percent. The more the participants consumed fresh vegetables and fruits, the greater the risk of dying prematurely of heart disease. The WHO, however, recommends an average amount of up to 500 grams. Based on the study results (640 grams), this recommendation should certainly be corrected upwards soon. The study was published in the science magazine „European Heart Journal“ released. (Sb)

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Picture: siepmannH