Diet of Milk, Fruit and Veggies to Reduce Disability
Reported February 9, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Consuming enough dairy products, fruits and vegetables in your daily diet may lower the risk of disability, especially among black women, shows a new study.
Study author Denise Houston, Ph.D., R.D., from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., says the findings are important because the number of disabled elderly is expected to triple between 1985 and 2050. She says, “We know that obesity, lack of physical exercise, alcohol consumption, and smoking are modifiable risk factors for disability, but little is known about the role of the diet.”
Researchers examined data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, which included about 16,000 participants between ages 45 and 64. They were asked to report their diets over a year. Then after an average of nine years, participants were asked to perform 12 daily activities.
Researchers found higher amounts of dairy, fruits and vegetables were associated with lower risk for functional limitations, such as being able to walk a quarter mile or climb 10 steps, that often precede disability. They also found black women who consumed the highest amounts of dairy products and fruits and vegetables had at least a 30-percent lower risk of disability than participants who consumed the lowest amounts of these foods.
The median servings for study participants consuming the highest amounts of foods were two servings of dairy, three servings of fruit, and three servings of vegetables. Current dietary recommendations call for three cups a day of low-fat or fat-free dairy products, two cups (four servings) of fruit, and two and a half cups (five servings) of vegetables.
Houston says there are several ways the foods could affect disability: The calcium and vitamin D in dairy foods may decrease the risk of disability associated with osteoporosis and decreased muscle strength. The antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables may reduce the accumulation of oxidative damage in tissues, which could slow disability associated with aging and decrease the risk of chronic diseases that can lead to disability.
The study authors call for the association to be further investigated.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2005;81:515-522
