Daily Consumption of Fruits Helps Lower CVD Risk by 40 Percent

Daily intake of fruits dramatically lowers the risk of heart diseases, researchers reveal.

The latest study presented at the ESC Congress by Dr. Huaidong Du, Oxford-UK, claims that people can cut the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) by almost 40 percent by eating more fruits on a regular basis. They based their finding on the evaluation of 451,681 participants with no history of CVD.

The findings based on a seven year follow-up study of 0.5 million people in China Kadoorie Biobank showed the greater the consumption of fruits, lower the risk of developing CVD.

CVD is listed as the sixth leading cause of death worldwide and includes ischemic heart diseases (IHD) and stroke. The risk of CVD can be lowered by making improvement in diet and lifestyle.

Dr. Du said, "But the large majority of this evidence has come from western countries and hardly any from China. China has a different pattern of CVD, with stroke as the main cause compared to western countries where IHD is more prevalent. Previous studies have combined ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke probably due to the limited number of stroke cases in their datasets. Given their different physiology and risk factors, we have conducted the first large prospective study on the association of fruit with subtypes of stroke in Chinese adults from both rural and urban areas."

In this study, none of the participants were on anti-hypertensive treatment at baseline from China Kadoorie Biobank (1) that included 10 different regions in China. They recorded the habitual consumption of fruits at baseline based on five categories that included never, monthly, 1-3 days per week, 4-6 days per week and daily.

In the seven year follow-up study, nearly 19,300 cases of IHD and 1968 strokes were reported. Nearly 18 percent of the participants had daily intake of fruits and 6.3 percent had never consumed any fruits. Those who ate fruits every day had a 25-40 percent lower CVD risk. Apart from this, people who ate fruits every day had lower blood pressure.

Dr Du said: "Our data clearly shows that eating fresh fruit can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, including ischaemic heart disease and stroke (particularly haemorrhagic stroke). And not only that, the more fruit you eat the more your CVD risk goes down. It does suggest that eating more fruit is beneficial compared to less or no fruit."

In another analysis, the researchers looked at the link between fruit intake and total mortality and CV mortality in 61,000 patients who had CVD or hypertension. It was seen that the mortality risk dropped by 32 percent in those who consumed fruits every day. They had a 40 percent reduced risk of dying from stroke and IHD by 27 percent.

The researchers concluded: "Our results show the benefit of eating fruit in the healthy general population and in patients with CVD and hypertension. Fruit consumption is an effective way to cut CVD risk and should not only be regarded as 'might be useful'. Policies are needed to promote the availability, affordability and acceptability of fresh fruit through educational and regulatory measures."