It will take more than an apple a day, but a diet rich in fruit and vegetables can keep a stroke away, a new study suggests. A large-scale Swedish survey found that women whose diet was high in anti-oxidants had a lower risk of stroke — even if they already had heart disease.
Antioxidants are compounds that combat free radicals in the body and reduce inflammation that can lead to disease. They are found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, tea and chocolate. The study, published in the medical journal Stroke, looked at how many of these foods middle-aged and elderly women regularly ate — and whether they had a stroke.
Women who had no cardiovascular disease at the start of the study and ate the most fruit and vegetables had a 17% lower risk of any kind of stroke. Women with disease who consumed the most antioxidants had a 57% lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke. Lenox Hill Hospital cardiologist Suzanne Steinbaum, who was not involved in the research, said the results show the best antidote to heart disease is in the fridge — not the medicine cabinet.
“We constantly are reading about supplements and those sorts of things as part of a heart-healthy lifestyle, but the studies never pan out,” she said. “The most interesting message from this study is the concept that antioxidants can prevent disease but they need to be consumed through food.”