Even ONE piece of fruit a day protects you enormously....

Thursday, 9-18-2014

Several weeks ago, I saw an article that reported a study in the UK found that eating SIX servings of vegetables a day cut the risk of dying from any cause for the people who did so by 43%.  That included cutting the risk of dying of any kind of cardiovascular disease or stroke by 24% of that 43%.

Contrast that to the zero drop in death rates from statin drugs even though they do decrease nonfatal heart attacks a bit to get some idea of how powerful that effect actually is!

Dr Terry Wahls even makes a strong case in her book to eat closer to 9 servings a day of vegetables always including dark green ones, cruciferous ones, vegetables in the onion & garlic family, and varied others of many colors.

Dr Joel Fuhrman also got incredible fat loss results by people who ate 9 to 12 servings a day of vegetables.  That’s because vegetables are so low in calories and sugars and high in fiber.  And, because eating that many a day begins to make it easy to not eat very much of anything else!

The bad news of course, is that it is very challenging to buy, bring home and eat that many vegetables each day and each week.

(The Vitamix super blender that uses so much power and speed that it even blends the fiber of vegetables into a smooth and drinkable drink with less volume and far easier to eat is one solution that works.  And, you don’t have to spend ten extra minutes three times a day to clean one or dispose of that fiber either!  It’s one I plan to add one myself soon.)

But even though it’s number one to do, even then it does take some work to do each week.

But the news a bit over 2 weeks ago in another study in Medical News Today was almost as good and even better in some ways!

Eating Even ONE piece of fruit a day protects you!

For many reasons that’s super great news! 

It’s as good for you as six or more servings a day of vegetables but MUCH easier to do!

a) Many kinds of fruit taste good.  You may even know of several kinds already that you LIKE to eat yourself!  And, the people with best results ate their piece of fruit once a day plus three or four a week more.  

b) The best time of day is first thing in the morning either as part of a light breakfast or a big one because studies found that your body processes the sugars in fruit at that time of day without boosting your blood sugar or fat deposits far more than later in the day.

c)  Organic berries, cherries, plums, and nectarines are MUCH safer to eat than conventional.  AND, they do the wonderful double of being high fiber, low glycemic kinds of fruit PLUS being so nutritious they are in the superfood category.

d) Whole fresh fruit is far better for you than the juice of the same fruit with no fiber as the remaining fructose than becomes fattening and damaging. 

One work around for that is to take a supplement of the fruit extract with water instead of drinking it as a juice.  For example, I once drank grape juice every day besides eating a piece of whole fruit each day.  Then I cut the fructose and calories in half by switching to 100% cranberry juice and DID lose about 5 pounds I no longer have.  Since then I switched from cranberry juice each day to one cranberry extract supplement each morning.  I lost no more fat.  BUT, my fasting glucose and HBA1C went down to very desirable from almost OK:  from about 85 to 82 and from about 5.6 to 5.4. 

Then too, for over 10 years I’ve taken 3 capsules a day of bilberry extract.

How good is that protection from eating that small amount of fruit daily according to this study?

For heart disease and stroke in particularly, it’s OUTSTANDING!

Here are some quotes from the Medical News Today article and a link to it.:

[Here are the most important findings first!]

“Overall, the researchers found that participants who ate fruit daily had a 32% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who never ate fruit,

as well as a 40% lower risk of death from stroke 

and a 27% lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease.”

&  “In detail, those who ate fruit daily had a 15% lower risk of ischemic heart disease, 

a 25% lower risk of ischemic stroke 

and a 40% reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke.”

“Eating fresh fruit every day 'could reduce risk of CVD by up to 40%'    

                                                                                                                 2 September 2014

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the US. Each year, 600,000 people die from heart disease and 130,000 die from stroke. 

But a new study finds that the risk of developing cardiovascular disease could be reduced by up to 40%, simply by eating fresh fruit every day.

The research team, led by Dr. Huaidong Du from the University of Oxford in the UK, recently presented their findings at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2014.

The results of their study came from an analysis of 451,681 individuals from five rural and five urban areas of China who were a part of the China Kadoorie Biobank - a study set up to investigate genetic and environmental causes of chronic diseases.

Dr. Du notes that numerous studies have indicated that improvements in diet and lifestyle are critical to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). But she points out that the majority of these studies have come from Western countries, with very few from China.

"China has a different pattern of CVD," explains Dr. Du, "with stroke as the main cause compared to Western countries where ischemic heart disease is more prevalent. Previous studies have combined ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, probably due to the limited number of stroke cases in their datasets."

She adds that given the difference in risk factors and physiology between ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, the team was particularly interested in how fruit consumption influenced the risk of these stroke subtypes.

The more fruit consumed each day, the lower the risk of CVD 

Study participants had no history of CVD and were receiving no treatment for high blood pressure at baseline.

At the beginning of the study, the researchers asked the participants how much fresh fruit they ate. Fruit consumption was divided into five categories: never, monthly, 1-3 days a week, 4-6 days a week and daily.

During 7 years of follow-up, 19,300 participants developed heart disease and 19,689 had stroke, of which 14,688 were ischemic and 3,562 were hemorrhagic.

Dr. Du and her team found that participants who ate fruit every day had a 25-40% lower risk of CVD, compared with those who never ate fruit. 

In detail, those who ate fruit daily had a 15% lower risk of ischemic heart disease, 

a 25% lower risk of ischemic stroke 

and a 40% reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke. 

Furthermore, the more fruit a person ate, the lower their risk of CVD. The average daily fruit intake was 1.5 portions (approximately 150 g).

In addition, the researchers found that participants who reported eating fruit daily had lower blood pressure at baseline, compared with those who reported never eating fruit.

"We also found that the beneficial effect of fruit on the risk of CVD was independent of its impact on baseline blood pressure," adds Dr. Du.

The team then carried out a separate analysis to see how fruit consumption affected all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in 61,000 patients who had high blood pressure or CVD at study baseline.

Overall, the researchers found that participants who ate fruit daily had a 32% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who never ate fruit,

as well as a 40% lower risk of death from stroke 

and a 27% lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease.

Commenting on their findings, the team says:

"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."

Earlier this year, Medical News Today reported on a study from the American Heart Association claiming eating more fruits and vegetables may help lower worldwide stroke risk.

Eating fresh fruit every day 'could reduce risk of CVD by up to 40%'

http://mnt.to/l/4qr8

Eating fruit every day could keep CVD away, according to a new study led by the 

University of Oxford, UK. Researchers found daily fruit consumption reduced CVD 

risk by 25-40%.