By: Thomas Pickering, MD, DPhil, FRCP, Director of Integrative and Behavioral Cardiology Program
of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

A diet that is high in fruits and vegetables is often recommended for the prevention of heart disease and stroke, but it has been unclear just how great the protection would be. An analysis of two large studies of health professionals (the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study) has provided some answers. Both studies involved the evaluation of peoples’ diets on at least two separate occasions. There were more than 100,000 people in all, and at the end of eight years of follow-up, there were 570 strokes.

The data were analyzed to look at the relationship between the intake of fruits and vegetables and the occurrence of ischemic strokes (strokes that are due to a blocked artery rather than a bleed). In general, people who ate a lot of fruits and vegetables had a more healthy lifestyle (they smoked less and exercised more than the others), but they also had less strokes. Even after allowing for their healthier lifestyle (and other factors such as whether or not they had high blood pressure), people who ate more than five servings of fruits and vegetables per day had a 30 per cent smaller risk of a stroke than people who ate less than three servings. The lowest risks were seen when there was a high consumption of leafy green vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts, and also fruits rich in vitamin C.

Doctor’s comments

We have been advising people for many years to eat their vegetables, but this is the first study that shows a direct relationship between the intake of fruits and vegetables and protection from strokes. The study thus provides further support for the recommendation to eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables every day. Interestingly, a previous analysis from one of the groups followed here (the Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study) showed that a high potassium diet also protected against stroke, which is no great surprise, because much of our potassium comes from fruits and vegetables.

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