Risk of Stroke reduced by eating more Fruits and Vegetables

February 1st, 2006

A recent study published in The Lancet, a British journal, reported that eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day can reduce the risk of a stroke by 26 percent. 

The study accessed data from previous research looking at 257,551 people over an average time of 13 years.  What the researchers found was a correlation between having the highest risk for strokes in people that ate less than 3 servings of fruits or vegetables a day.  If the person ate 3 – 5 servings a day of fruits or vegetables they had a lower risk of having a stroke.  The group that ate 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day had the lowest risk of having a stroke.

The researchers did not know the exact reason for the lowered risk of stroke among the people that ate the most fruits and vegetables.  They believe that the extra potassium, folate, fiber and antioxidants in the fruits and vegetables helped in a lower stroke risk.

The study did not take into effect other habits that may also contribute to healthy lifestyle.  A person that ate 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day may also be more likely to exercise and not smoke.  More research needs to be conducted because the overall healthy lifestyle choices that the fruit and vegetable have could also be part of the reasons they had fewer strokes.

The “Dash Diet” which showed promise in eating your fruits and vegetables with small portions of meat and dairy showed health benefits in lowering blood pressure.  In this study patients with high blood pressure were told to eat more fruits and vegetables each day.  After time their blood pressure was lowered.

Eating whole fruits and vegetables offer nutrition, fiber, and are generally lower in calories than most processed foods.  By eating more fruits and vegetables you would be able to fill up on less calories possibly causing healthy weight loss while at the same time helping to prevent heart disease, some cancers and also strokes.

Comment on this Article at our Forum Submit your own Article Stroke Prevention and Treatments   RSS Feed to neurological news   RSS Feed to our health news   RSS Feed to all of our content

By Nicole Wilson
Best Syndication Staff Writer

Stroke Treatment Books

Keywords and misspellings: stroak strok prevention prevension treetment treatment vegitable vegtable froot eat more fibre lowerd risk for develping heart diseese strokes