Old News And New News
For pretty much all of us, the fact that eating ample quantities of fruits and vegetables is generally good for our bodies is old news -- news that, quite frankly, we may be a little tired of hearing.
But there's nothing old and tired about the findings of an experiment published in December edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which suggest a diet high in antioxidant-rich plants could be especially beneficial for individuals with respiratory problems.
Methods And Results
The design of the study was as follows. Researchers tracked the pulmonary fitness of two sets of asthma sufferers: one set was given five servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit per day, while the other set was limited to two servings of vegetables and one serving of fruit per day or less.
After 14 weeks, the group that consumed more antioxidants exhibited significantly better lung function than the other group, lending credence to associations scientists have previously identified between diet and respiratory health.
Read More:
- Study: Eating Lots of Fruit And Vegetables May Help Asthma Sufferers (Los Angeles Times)
- Manipulating Antioxidant Intake In Asthma: A Randomized Controlled Trial (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
- Asthma Diet: Does What You Eat Make A Difference? (Mayo Clinic)