Foods that May Protect Against Stroke

Pop quiz: What do apples, pears, cucumbers and cauliflower have in common? Answer: The edible parts of all of them are white. And these fruits and vegetables have now been identified as foods that may dramatically lower the risk of stroke. This news comes from a decade long Dutch study that involved more than 20,000 adults age 20 to 65, none of whom had cardiovascular disease when they enrolled. Over the 10 years, 233 of the study participants suffered strokes. Researchers have since compared the diets the participants reported eating to see which fruits and vegetables, if any, were associated with a lower risk of stroke.

Based on information contained in the questionnaires all participants filled out, those who ate the most "white" fruits and vegetables were 52 percent less likely to have had strokes than those who didn't eat as much of these foods. The amount that seemed to make a difference was 171 grams, the equivalent of one medium to large apple daily. The most commonly eaten white foods were apples, pears and applesauce. The study was published online September 15 in Stroke.

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Prunes for Strong Bones

Dried plums, also called prunes, seem to be really good for bones. Researchers from Florida State and Oklahoma State universities tested two fruits, dried plums and dried apples, on two groups of postmenopausal women. For a year, one group of 55 women ate about 10 prunes per day while a second group of 45 women ate 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) of dried apples daily. All participants took 500 mg of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D daily during the study. Afterwards, the women who ate the prunes had significantly higher bone mineral density in the spine and the ulna (one of two long bones in the forearm) than the women who ate the dried apples. The researchers said the difference was due in part to the ability of the nutrients in prunes to suppress the rate of bone breakdown, which tends to exceed the rate of new bone growth as we age. The study was published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

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