Eating 2 servings of fruit per day may protect against aneurysms

A fruit-heavy diet may help decrease a person’s risk for having an abdominal aortic aneurysm, Counsel and Heal reported.

An abdominal aortic aneurysm is an enlarged area in the lower part of the aorta, a large artery that runs through the abdomen. If not monitored or treated properly, the aneurysm can burst, putting patients at risk of bleeding to death.

In a new study published in the journal Circulation, researchers analyzed more than 80,000 people between the ages of 46 and 84 from Sweden over the course of 13 years. During the study period, 1,100 participants had abdominal aortic aneurysms, 222 of which ruptured.

After examining the participants’ eating habits, the researchers found that people who consumed an average of two servings of fruit per day were 25 percent less likely to develop an aneurysm and 43 percent less likely to have an aneurysm rupture compared to their counterparts who ate less than one serving of fruit per day.

According to Counsel and Heal, the researchers suggested that the antioxidants found in fruit may help fight inflammation, protecting individuals from abdominal aortic aneurysms.

“A high consumption of fruits may help to prevent many vascular diseases, and our study suggests that a lower risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm will be among the benefits," lead author Dr. Otto Stackelberg, a Ph.D. student in the nutritional epidemiology unit of the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in a press release.