Med diet reduces lung disease risk

Eating a Mediterranean diet halves the chances of developing serious lung disease, a French study suggests.

The research revealed that eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables cut the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

This is an umbrella term for chronic progressive lung disease, such as emphysema and bronchitis.

COPD is expected to become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020, with cigarette smoking the primary factor in its development.

French researchers tracked the health of almost 43,000 men, who were already part of the US Health Professionals Follow up Study.

This began in 1986 and involved more than 50,000 US health care professionals aged between 40 and 75, who were surveyed every two years.

They were asked questions about lifestyle, including smoking and exercise, diet and medical history.

Dietary intake was assessed every four years.

Eating patterns fell into two categories - those who ate a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains and fish (Mediterranean diet), and those who ate a diet rich in processed foods, refined sugars, and cured and red meats (Western diet).

Between 1986 and 1998, 111 cases of COPD were newly diagnosed.

The Mediterranean diet was associated with a 50 per cent lower risk of developing COPD than the Western diet.

And men who ate a predominantly Western diet were more than four times as likely to develop COPD.

The higher the compliance with a Mediterranean diet, the lower was the risk of developing COPD over the 12-year period.

Conversely, the higher the compliance with the Western diet, the higher was the risk of developing COPD.

The study, by the French research institute Inserm, is published in the Thorax.

Last month, researchers found that a Mediterranean diet helped prevent respiratory allergies and asthma in children.

source:999today.com