A diet rich in fruit and vegetables can significantly reduce the risk of heart attack among women, a Swedish study has found.
In the first piece of research to look at the effect of all dietary antioxidants in relation to heart disease, it was established that those women who ate an antioxidant-rich diet – with lots of fruit and vegetables – had less risk of having a heart attack than those who ate little.
The researchers followed 32,561 Swedish women aged 49-83 from September 1997 to December 2007, all of whom completed a food-frequency questionnaire in which they had to note how often, on average, they consumed each type of food or beverage during a year.
The researchers calculated estimates of total antioxidant capacity from a database that measures the oxygen radical absorption capacity (ORAC) of the most common foods in the USA and the women were categorised into five groups of total antioxidant capacity of diet.
During the ten-year study, 1,114 women suffered a heart attack and it was found that women in the group with the highest total antioxidant capacity had a 20% lower risk, and they ate almost seven servings per day of fruit and vegetables – nearly three times more than the women with the least antioxidant capacity, who on average consumed 2.4 servings.
Dr Alicja Wolk, of the Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, added that trials testing high doses of antioxidant supplements failed to see any benefit on heart disease and in one study higher all-cause mortality was reported.
“In contrast to supplements of single antioxidants, the dietary total antioxidant capacity reflects all present antioxidants, including thousands of compounds, all of them in doses present in our usual diet, and even takes into account their synergistic effects,” she added.
Total Antioxidant Capacity from Diet and Risk of Myocardial Infarction: A Prospective Cohort of Women. Rautiainen S, E.B. Levitan, N.Orsini, A. Åkesson, R. Morgenstern, M.A. Mittleman, A. Wolk. The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 125, Issue 10. October 2012. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2012.03.008.
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