Eat Healthy to Breathe Easy

The third leading cause of death in the United States, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a group of lung diseases that block airflow to result in breathing problems.  Raphaelle Varrasso, from the French National Research Institute of Health and Medical Research (NSERM; France), and colleagues studied 73.228 women (participants in the Nurses’ Health Study) and 47,026 men (enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study), followed for over a decade.  Those men and women who ate a diet highest in whole grains, vegetables and nuts, and lowest in red meats and sugars were up to a third less likely to develop COPD – even if they smoked - than those who ate the worst diet.  Observing that: “A higher AHEI-2010 diet score (reflecting high intakes of whole grains, polyunsaturated fatty acids, nuts, and long chain omega-3 fats and low intakes of red/processed meats, refined grains, and sugar sweetened drinks) was associated with a lower risk of COPD in both women and men,” the study authors urge that: ‘These findings support the importance of a healthy diet in multi-interventional programs to prevent COPD.”