1.4 million Australians are at a high risk of stroke or heart attack over the next five years. And while an Australian National University researcher has pushed for prescription of life-saving medication for those at risk, health experts in Australia could also consider the results of a seven-year study on 500,000 adult Chinese, which shows that fruit consumption could also help prevent cardiovascular problems.
The research, done by the University of Oxford and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, tracked the death records and electronic hospital records of ailments of half a million Chinese from 10 urban and rural localities. The respondents did not have a history of heart attack or stroke when they first joined the study, reports the New York Post.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that people who ate fresh fruit regularly are at a lower risk for cardiovascular ailments. It explains the results to fruits being a rich source of potassium, dietary fibre, antioxidants and other potentially active compounds. Fruits also contain little fat or sodium and fewer calories.
The authors also found strong association of fruit consumption with education, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar and not smoking. When they included these factors, the researchers estimated 100 grammes daily was linked with one-third less cardiovascular mortality for both genders.
“The association between fruit consumption and cardiovascular risk seems to be stronger in China, where many still eat little fruit, than in high-income countries where daily consumption of fruit is more common. Fruit in China is almost exclusively consumed raw, whereas much of the fruit in high-income countries is processed, and many previous studies combined fresh and processed fruit,” explains Dr Huaidong Du, study author from the University of Oxford.
