Tobacco is enemy number 1 of the lungs. But scientists have found that following a diet based on a high consumption of fruits, vegetables, oily fish and whole grain cereals for years is associated with better results in tests that measure the function of the respiratory organs, including spirometry .
In addition, this link between a healthy eating pattern and a better state of the lungs also occurs among those who suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disease that, according to WHO data, kills about three million people a year in the world, and whose main cause is exposure to tobacco smoke.
Eat well and you will breathe better
This relationship between what you eat and lung health has been demonstrated by a study conducted on the data of 1,551 men and 1,391 women in the United Kingdom, smokers and non-smokers, suffering from lung ailments and healthy.
The scientists analyzed the diet of these people using questionnaires, and their eating pattern (the type of diet followed in the long term) with blood and urine tests. They were then subjected to spirometry, a test in which the state of an individual’s lungs is measured based on the amount of air they are able to breathe in and out.
When crossing the data, clear trends emerged: a “prudent” eating pattern (as the authors of the work, published in the European Respiratory Journal call it), based on fruits, vegetables, oily fish and whole grain cereals, is associated with both in men as in women with a higher forced expiratory volume (the volume of air exhaled from the lungs in a forced way during one second after having taken in full air). And it also contributes to presenting a better forced vital capacity , that is, a greater volume of expired air, with the maximum possible effort, starting from maximum inspiration.
Furthermore, the results showed that a healthy eating pattern has protective effects against lung ailments (including COPD), especially among male smokers.
