Fresh Fruit Linked to Lower Risk of Stroke and Heart Attack
Need even more reasons to order gift fruit baskets or fruit trays from Pittman & Davis? A recently completed study suggests that eating fresh fruit (like the sweet grapefruits found in our fresh fruit baskets) daily may lower your risk of having a stroke or heart attack.
It’s well-known that a healthy diet (one including fruit like citrus, grapefruit and more) can reduce your risk of a number of chronic diseases. The USDA recommends adults who exercise less than 30 minutes daily eat one-and-a-half to 2 cups of fruit each day, but fewer than 14% of Americans are doing that.
If you need a greater incentive to buy fruit more often, check out a University of Oxford doctor’s findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. A research team led by Dr. Huaidong Du shares identified a link between a daily intake of fresh fruit (such as Pittman & Davis’s famous grapefruits) and cardiovascular disease.
Studies conducted in the US, where sending fruit baskets as holiday gifts and buying fruit as a staple is common, have shown that eating more fruits and veggies in early adulthood may leader to better heart health later in life, but Dr. Du’s team noted that less was known about the benefits of a diet high in fresh fruits in China, where fruit consumption is lower than many other countries.
Dr. Du’s team enrolled over 500,000 adults with no prior history of cardiovascular disease between the ages of 30 and 79 from ten urban and rural regions across China. The study participants were instructed to report their daily fruit intake, noting which fruits they consumed and how many servings of each. The health of the participants was tracked over seven years, and results showed that those who made fresh fruit a regular part of their diets had lower blood pressure and glucose levels compared to those participants who rarely ate fruit.
After accounting for lower blood pressure, lower glucose levels and other factors (including education and not smoking), Dr. Du’s researchers found that those participants who consumed around 100g of fresh fruits daily were also a third less likely to die of cardiovascular causes, compared with those who never or rarely ate fresh fruits. Dr. Du notes that the link between high fruit intake and cardiovascular risks appears to be more prevalent in China, where daily fruit intake is rarer than in higher-income countries.
Commenting on the results, senior study author Prof. Zhengming Chen, also of the University of Oxford, says:
“It’s difficult to know whether the lower risk in people who eat more fresh fruit is because of a real protective effect. If it is, then widespread consumption of fresh fruit in China could prevent about half a million cardiovascular deaths a year, including 200,000 before age 70, and even larger numbers of non-fatal strokes and heart attacks.”
So many reasons to order a fruit gift basket from Pittman & Davis! Fruit is sweet, flavorful, and delicious – fruit is perfect as a snack, in smoothies, salads, or in your favorite recipes. And it’s not just good for your heart – a diet high in fresh fruit also lowers your risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other health problems. Shop our wide variety of fruits, gift yourself or a loved one, and enjoy great health now and later in life!
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