An Apple A Day–How Humble Fruit May Aid In Heart Health Even More Than We Thought
We all remember that nagging rhyme from when we were young and desperate for candy: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away…”
Yes, I can practically hear my 10-year-old self saying, but what about chocolate? Does that keep anything away?
Well, it turns out your mother was right about this one.
According to recent study, literally eating one apple a day could reduce your chances of a fatal heart attack by 60 percent. Furthermore, the study revealed that the benefits derived from one serving of fruit per day could be just as good as taking a statin drug for reducing cholesterol levels, and as good as an antihypertensive drug for reducing blood pressure.
And the real miracle here is that you don’t even need to eat an entire apple! These effects can be achieved by eating as little as 100 grams of fruit–the equivalent of half an apple each day.
Keep in mind that in order to have this miracle effect the fruit must be fresh and not processed. After all, your mother didn’t say, “A fruit roll-up or a cup of sugar-laden applesauce a day…”
The Oxford University study looked at the importance of fruit in the diet from a rather backwards perspective. By evaluating the health and diet of some 500,000 Chinese people who got little fruit in their diets, the researchers were able to draw a clear contrast between the majority of the group, who ate little or no fruit, and the minority who did.
They found that regular fruit eaters reduce their risk of fatal heart attack by 60 percent, and their chances of other major heart problems and stroke by 66 percent. The researchers also noted that the same statistics held up in terms of reduced blood pressure and cholesterol as well.
There seems little question that the results are genuine, given that the study ran over the course of seven years, not to mention the enormous sample size the researchers employed.
Extrapolating the results, the researchers say that eating a daily helping of fruit could reduce the incidence of heart attacks by 500,000 per year in China alone.
Who could have possibly imagined that eating natural, unprocessed food regularly could have such a tremendous impact on the lives of so many people?
Well, your mother did. Maybe we should remember her advice more often, yeah?
wddty.com/news/2016/04/an-apple-a-day-keeps-a-fatal-heart-attack-away-and-works-as-well-as-a-statin.html