Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables having white flesh can protect against stroke found a recent study. The color of the edible portion of apples or pears mirrors the existence of beneficial phytochemicals like carotenoids and flavonoids. Fruits and vegetables were classified in four colour groups clusters, orange/yellow, red/purple and white.
In a study researchers from Holland examined the association between the colour of fruits and vegetables, which were consumed by more than twenty thousand adults between the age group of twenty and sixty five. All the study participants had no previous record of heart disease or stroke at the start of the study.
During ten years of follow up, two hundred and thirty-three people had strikes. However, the risk of stroke was more than fifty percent lower for the people who consumed a lot of white fleshed fruits and vegetables in comparison to people with low intake.
Each twenty-five gram daily increase in white fruits and vegetable consumption was associated with a nine percent lower risk of stroke. According to lead author Linda Oude Griep from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, to prevent stroke, it may be useful to consume substantial amounts of white fruits and vegetables.
For instance, eating one apple a day is an easy way to increase white fruits and vegetable intake. However, other fruits and vegetable colour groups may guard against other chronic diseases. Therefore, it remains of importance to consume a lot of fruits and vegetables, stated Dr Oude Griep.
Before the results are taken into everyday practice, the findings should be confirmed through further study. It may be too early for physicians to advise patients to change their dietary habits based on these initial findings, she added. Earlier study on the preventive health benefits of fruits and vegetables focused on unique nutritional value of the foods.
The observed diminution in stroke risk might further be due to a generally healthier lifestyle of people consuming a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, explained Doctor Heike Wersching, from the Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine at the University of Minster in Germany. The study was published in the journal Stroke.