RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

Adam Cresswell, Health editor
28jan06

EATING your greens will do more than please your mother: new evidence shows five servings of fruit and vegetables a day can slash your risk of having a stroke by 26 per cent.

A review of previous studies, conducted by British and Australian experts, found that even eating between three to five 80g servings a day cut strokes by 11per cent, compared with people who ate fewer than three servings a day.
The authors said that while a reduction in stroke from fruit and vegetable consumption was already known, this was the first time researchers had been able to quantify the benefit.

The findings suggested that heeding recommendations on fruit and vegetable intake could save lives and prevent thousands of strokes a year.

“The average fruit and vegetable intake in most developed countries is about three servings per day, and current recommendations encourage five or more servings per day,” the authors from the University of London and the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University wrote.

“Our results provide strong support for these recommendations. If these goals were achieved, stroke morbidity and mortality would be greatly reduced.

“Such diet modifications would also reduce other cardiovascular diseases and some cancers.”

Their review, published yesterday in The Lancet, looked at the results of eight previous studies that together involved more than 250,000 people who were followed up for an average of 13 years.

In Australia, an estimated 40,000 to 48,000 strokes occur every year - the equivalent of one stroke every 11 to 13 minutes. Most of them - 70 per cent - affect people who have never had a stroke before, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

There were 12,533 fatal strokes in Australia in 2002, 60 per cent of them in women.

The study authors conceded their results might be affected by observational bias. People who ate a lot of fruit and vegetables were probably likely to share other characteristics known to reduce stroke risk - being less likely to smoke or be overweight, and more likely to exercise and to have lower intakes of salt and saturated fat.

Despite that, they said their findings on potential benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption could be “conservative estimates”.

Roger Allan, a cardiologist at Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital and chairman of the National Heart Foundation’s clinical issues committee, said previous studies had shown that inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption was a risk factor for heart disease, which was often linked with stroke.

“The (latest) study is valid and thus reminds us all to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables,” Dr Allan said.