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More Fruit for a Healthy Heart? New Study Finds Daily Fruit Consumption Can Reduce Risk of Heart Disease by up to 40 Percent.

This summer I discovered my new favorite breakfast: a bowl of plain Greek yogurt, mixed with a teaspoon of molasses, and topped with ½ cup of raspberries, ½ cup of blueberries, and various seeds. I knew this was a healthy breakfast – but I didn’t know it might help me reduce risk of heart disease by up to 40 percent. That’s what a large-scale observational study that was recently published in the European Heart Journal found regarding daily fruit consumption.[i]

The study, which took place in China, followed 451,680 subjects from both urban and rural areas with an average age of 50.5 years and no prior history of heart disease over seven years. They were divided into five groups by how often they ate fresh fruit: rarely/never, monthly, 1-3 days a week, 4-6 days a week, or daily.

Compared to folks who hardly ever ate fruit, the daily fruit eaters reduced their risk of heart disease and stroke by 25-40 percent. Results were similar for men and women, and they were dose-dependent, which means that the more fruit the participants ate, the lower risk of cardiovascular disease during the study period. That’s a pretty important finding, since cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide.

And there’s more good news: Fruit aficionados also had lower blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease. Currently, one in three people in the United States has high blood pressure – many of them undiagnosed.

Dr. Huaidong Du, the lead researcher of the study, commented, "Our data clearly shows that eating fresh fruit can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, including ischaemic heart disease and stroke (particularly haemorrhagic stroke). And not only that, the more fruit you eat the more your CVD risk goes down. It does suggest that eating more fruit is beneficial compared to less or no fruit.”

While the impact of eating fruit every day may be surprising, the results of the study echo previous findings of other large, long-term studies, which found that fruit and vegetable consumption protects against cardiovascular disease.

If you can’t manage to eat fruit every single day, it’s good to know that Juice Plus+ helps provide added nutrition for a healthy heart. Juice Plus+ contains nutrients from 25 fruits, vegetables, and grains, including 15 different fruits and berries, and studies show that Juice Plus+ supports cardiovascular wellness.

 

I know I’ll keep eating my morning yogurt with berries. Are you a berry fan, too? Did you know you can grow strawberries in a Tower Garden®? Tower Garden is a unique, vertical aeroponic growing system for fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. It saves labor because you don’t have to dig, weed, or battle ground pests, and it also uses a lot less water than traditional gardening. If you prefer cantaloupe with your breakfast, you can grow those in a Tower Garden, too, along with salad greens for your lunch (anything from arugula to radicchio, not to mention my favorite leafy green — kale).

 

How often do you eat fruit? Do the findings of this study inspire you to eat it more often? Share below.


 

[i] European Society of Cardiology. Fruit consumption cuts cardiovascular disease risk by up to 40 percent. Science Daily. Sept. 1, 2014. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140901123545.htm