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Regular consumption of fresh fruit may lower risk for CVD
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Among adults in China, where fruit consumption is low, regular consumption of 100 g of fresh fruit per day was associated with reductions in BP and blood glucose and independently linked with significantly lower risk for major CV events, researchers reported in The New England Journal of Medicine.
“The association between fruit consumption and CV 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,” Huaidong Du, PhD, from the clinical trial service unit and the epidemiological studies unit at the University of Oxford, said in a press release.
Du and colleagues recruited 512,891 adults aged 30 to 79 years from 10 regions in China between 2004 and 2008. All participants at baseline responded to a questionnaire on diet, lifestyle and medical history. Then, 5% to 6% of the original participants were randomly assigned to two re-survey groups; one group (n = 19,788) was re-surveyed from July to October 2008 and the other group (n = 25,000) was re-surveyed from August 2013 to September 2014. The primary endpoints were CV mortality, incidence of major coronary events plus nonfatal MI, hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke.
According to the results, 18% of participants overall reported eating fresh fruit every day, 9.4% reported consumption 4 to 6 days per week and 6.3% reported rare consumption or no consumption. Men aged 50 to 55 years had the lowest level of fruit consumption. Those who reported higher fruit consumption were more likely to be female, younger, and have a higher level of education and income. Those who reported daily fruit consumption also showed differences in BMI (0.5 points higher), waist circumference (0.9 cm larger), systolic BP (4 mm Hg lower), diastolic BP (1.4 mm Hg lower) and blood glucose (0.5 mmol/L lower).
During 3.2 million person-years of follow-up, 5,173 CV-related deaths, 2,551 incident major coronary events, 14,579 ischemic strokes and 3,523 intracerebral hemorrhages occurred in the 451,665 participants without a history of CVD or antihypertensive treatment at baseline. The researchers observed an inverse relationship between CV risk and level of fresh fruit consumption (P < .001 for trend). Compared with nonconsumption, the adjusted HR for daily consumption was 0.6 for CV mortality, 0.64 for hemorrhagic stroke, 0.66 for major coronary events and 0.75 for ischemic stroke.
Du and colleagues estimated that 16% of CV mortality could be related to low fresh fruit consumption in China.
“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 CV deaths a year, including 200,000 before age 70, and even larger numbers of nonfatal strokes and MI,” Zhengming Chen, DPhil, from the clinical trial service unit and the epidemiological studies unit at the University of Oxford, said in the release. – by Tracey Romero
Disclosure: Chen and Du report no relevant financial disclosures.
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