Most of us know that air pollution is harmful to our health, especially our lungs.
But new research suggests that eating plenty of fruit may help soften some of those harmful effects—at least for women.
The findings were presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam by Pimpika Kaewsri, a Ph.D. student at the University of Leicester’s Center for Environmental Health and Sustainability in the UK.
Kaewsri explained that more than 90% of people worldwide breathe air that exceeds safe pollution levels set by the World Health Organization.
Exposure to polluted air is strongly linked to reduced lung function, while eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables has separately been tied to healthier lungs.
Her team wanted to find out if diet could play a role in protecting people from the damaging effects of polluted air.
To explore this, the researchers used data from the UK Biobank, which contains health information from around half a million people.
They focused on 200,000 participants, looking at their diet, particularly fruit, vegetable, and whole grain intake, alongside measures of lung function and their exposure to fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5.
These tiny particles, often released from car exhausts and industrial activity, are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs, where they can cause lasting damage.
The team discovered that higher levels of PM2.5 were linked to reduced lung function in all participants, but the effect was less severe among women who ate more fruit.
For every increase in pollution exposure, women who consumed fewer than four portions of fruit per day showed a larger decline in lung capacity than women who ate four or more portions daily.
Kaewsri believes antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds in fruit may help counteract the oxidative stress and inflammation triggered by air pollution. Interestingly, the protective effect was only seen in women.
One possible explanation is that women in the study generally ate more fruit than men, making the difference easier to detect.
The research also confirmed a broader finding: a healthy diet is linked to better lung function in both men and women, regardless of their level of pollution exposure. Kaewsri now hopes to study how diet influences changes in lung health over time.
Commenting on the study, Professor Sara De Matteis of the University of Turin noted that the results add to the growing evidence of the benefits of a plant-rich diet.
However, she emphasized that improving diet should not replace strong government action to reduce air pollution, since there are no safe levels of exposure. She also highlighted that not everyone has equal access to healthy foods, which can limit the ability of individuals to make protective dietary choices.
This research suggests that while we can’t escape polluted air on our own, making space for more fresh fruit in our daily diets could be one small but meaningful way to protect our lungs.
Source: KSR.
