People who eat plenty of chicory, cauliflower, apples or pears reduce their risk of a stroke by half compared to those who eat few white fruits or vegetables. This finding came out of an initial study of the effect of the colour of fruit and vegetables.
Doctoral researcher Linda Oude Griep did the research together with colleagues from Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR, and the RIVM. She based her findings on a ten-year study by the RIVM of more than 20,000 Dutch men and women between the ages of 20 and 65 for whom there was data on their eating habits and the incidence of stroke.
Last year, Oude Griep demonstrated on the basis of these data that eating raw fruit and vegetables significantly reduces the risk of stroke. In a follow-up study she analysed the effect of the colour of the fruit and veg, which goes together with a number of nutrients. She distinguished four colour groups: green for leafy vegetables such as spinach and lettuce; yellow/ orange, including citrus fruits and carrots; red/ purple, including tomatoes, strawberries and black grapes; and white, including apples and pears as well as bananas and cauliflower. People who eat plentiful amounts of white fruit and vegetables appear to have a 55 percent lower risk of suffering a stroke than people who eat little from this colour category. Oude Griep did not find such a correlation for any other colour. ‘But only if the effect is confirmed in other populations can health advice be based on it’, warns the researcher. The researchers do not advise cutting consumption of non-white fruit and vegetables, because these contain other important nutrients that may provide protection against other diseases. Quite what the link is between the white colour and the prevention of strokes is not clear. The Dutch Product Board for Horticulture funded this research, but was in no way involved in the analysis, interpretation or description of the results.
Source: WageningenWorld Nr 4 2011.
Further Reading:
Linda M. Oude Griep, W.M. Monique Verschuren, Daan Kromhout, Marga C. Ocké, Johanna M. Geleijnse (2011). Colors of Fruit and Vegetables and 10-Year Incidence of Stroke. Stroke, 42: 3190-3195.