Originally published March 2 2005
Good diet helps the body function well in old age, new study finds
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Older people whose diets are rich in fruits and vegetables have less risk of becoming disabled, a Wake Forest University study says. The researchers found that, of the 9,000 people they tracked, those who reported eating the most fruits and vegetables, along with two dairy product services each day, did the best at routine tasks such as dressing, cooking, and walking a quarter-mile. The study attributes the better performance to antioxidants in the foods.
Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and dairy products appears to help maintain your ability to function normally as you age, a new study reports.
Older people who consumed more of these foods had less risk of physical limitations, such as the inability to walk a quarter mile or climb 10 steps, which are often the first signs of disability.
And those who ate the most fruits and vegetables had a lower risk of functional limitations nine years after they were initially evaluated, said study author Denise Houston, a research associate at Wake Forest University.
The results are published in the February issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
In their study, Houston and her team initially collected data on 9,404 healthy black and white men and women, 45 to 64 years of age.
Those eating the highest amounts of dairy products and fruits and vegetables consumed two servings of dairy, three servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables a day.
Houston believes that because fruits and vegetables contain high levels of antioxidants, they can help to prevent cellular damage associated with aging.
"A diet that's higher in fruit and vegetables and dairy products does have effects other than on chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease and cancer," Houston added.
Katz noted that living a healthy lifestyle may have influenced not just diet, but other practices related to risk of disability.
"People who take care of themselves in one way tend to be people who take care of themselves in other ways, although attempts were made [by the researchers] to control for this," he said.
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