Researchers have uncovered a surprising link between fruit intake and lung protection in polluted environments.
Women who ate at least four portions of fruit a day had smaller declines in lung function compared to those with lower intake. Antioxidants in fruit may help offset pollution’s damaging effects.
Fruit and Pollution: A Surprising Connection
Eating fruit may help lessen the harmful impact of air pollution on the lungs, according to findings shared at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The work was presented by Pimpika Kaewsri, a PhD candidate at the Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability at the University of Leicester, UK.
She explained: “Over 90% of the global population is exposed to air pollution levels that exceed WHO guidelines, and ample research shows that exposure to higher air pollution levels is associated with reduced lung function.
“Separately, a healthy diet – particularly one high in fruits and vegetables – has been linked to better lung function. We wanted to explore whether a healthy diet or specific food groups could modify or partly mitigate the known adverse effects of air pollution on lung function.”
Investigating Diet’s Protective Role
Using data from about 200,000 participants in the UK Biobank, Kaewsri and her colleagues analyzed how eating habits — including the intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains — related to lung capacity (FEV1, or the amount of air exhaled in one second) and exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5). PM2.5 refers to tiny airborne particles, 2.5 micrometres or smaller, that come from vehicle emissions and industrial sources. The team also considered factors such as age, height, and socioeconomic background.
For every additional five micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter of air, women who ate less fruit showed an average FEV1 decline of 78.1ml. In comparison, women with higher fruit intake saw a smaller reduction of 57.5ml, suggesting that eating fruit may provide some protection against the damaging effects of polluted air.
Why Fruit May Offer Protection
Kaewsri explains: “Our study confirmed that a healthy diet is linked to better lung function in both men and women, regardless of air pollution exposure. And that women who consumed four portions of fruit per day or more appeared to have smaller reductions in lung function associated with air pollution, compared to those who consumed less fruit.
“This may be partly explained by the antioxidant and anti-inflammation compounds naturally present in fruit. These compounds could help mitigate oxidative stress and inflammation caused by fine particles, potentially offsetting some of the harmful effects of air pollution on lung function.”
Kaewsri also noted that, in the study population, men generally reported lower fruit intake than women. “This difference in dietary patterns may help explain why the potential protective effect of fruit against air pollution was only observed in women,” she adds.
Kaewsri plans to extend the research by exploring whether diet can influence changes in lung function over time.
Expert Perspectives on Diet and Policy
Professor Sara De Matteis, Chair of the European Respiratory Society’s expert group on occupational and environmental health, based at the University of Turin, Italy, who was not involved in the research, said: “This study confirms the potential respiratory health benefits of a healthy diet, especially rich in fresh fruit intake.
“However, access to a healthy diet is not equally distributed in the population and, even if the authors adjusted for socio-economic status, some residual confounding cannot be ruled out.
“A healthy plant-rich diet should be promoted in the population starting from primary school, not only for preventing chronic diseases, but also to reduce the carbon footprint of meat-rich diets.
“This does not exempt governments from continuing with environmental policies to reduce air pollution to as low as possible, given there are no safe exposure levels, and it does not transfer their accountability to individuals whose diet choices are often constrained by economic needs.”
Meeting: European Respiratory Society Congress
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