Which Fruits and Vegetables Are Most Muscle-Preserving?

Among a sample of thousands of people aged 65 and older, the daily consumption of five or more servings of fruits and vegetables was significantly associated with a nearly 70 percent reduction in the risk of frailty over the subsequent few years. Higher fruit and/or vegetable intake is also linked to half the odds of sarcopenia, excessive age-related muscle loss and about a third reduced odds of weak muscle strength. The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, following more than 75,000 older women for decades, is large enough to drill down further, and of all the fruits and vegetables, the greatest protection appeared to come from leafy greens.

The only three fruits or vegetables for which I could find interventional studies are garlic, spinach, and blueberries. Cornell researchers fed a group of young women about a quarter cup (60 ml) of freeze-dried blueberry powder a day for six weeks (equivalent to about 1.5 daily cups (360 ml) of fresh blueberries) and then dripped their blood onto muscle progenitor cells in a petri dish. Muscle progenitor cells are the stem cells responsible for muscle regeneration. Compared to blood taken before the six weeks of blueberries, the berried blood boosted muscle progenitor cell proliferation by 40 percent. Unfortunately, when they repeated the experiment on older women and dripped their blood onto muscle cells taken from older donors, no such improvement of muscle regeneration capacity was found.

Would six weeks of two cups (480 ml) of frozen blueberries a day affect the functional mobility in adults older than sixty? Randomized to blueberries or carrot juice as a control, researchers measured things like “walking a plank” to see if balance could be maintained along a narrow path. The blueberries beat out the carrot juice, suggesting “blueberry supplementation may provide an effective countermeasure to age-related declines in functional mobility….” Looking back, the researchers thought perhaps they maybe should have used something like cucumber as a control, since the carrots may have offered some benefit as well, making the blueberry results even more impressive.

What about garlic? In 2020, a large cross-sectional study of nearly 30,000 men and women found a significant association between raw garlic consumption and handgrip strength. Compared to those who almost never ate garlic, those who ate it at least two or three times a week had a handgrip strength advantage large enough to be associated with significantly less disability and a longer life. Ajoene (ajo is garlic in Spanish) is a compound found in crushed garlic that was found to be protective against muscle wasting in cancer-ridden mice, but garlic powder might work too.

Ovariectomized rats are an animal model for postmenopausal women (rats themselves don’t go through menopause, because they don’t menstruate). Feed ovariectomized rats a diet of two percent garlic powder and they lose significantly less muscle mass as they age, though a human diet of two percent garlic powder would be like three tablespoons (44.40 ml) a day. The only way to know if garlic powder can help people, is to put it to the test. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial out of Iran of fatty liver patients found that just a half teaspoon (2.5 ml) of garlic powder a day increased measures of muscle mass by about 1.5 pounds (0.70 kg) over placebo within twelve weeks.

And finally, spinach. In 2021, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of a spinach extract was published to see if it could improve muscle fitness in older adults when combined with 12 weeks of a moderate-intensity training program. Compared to placebo, those randomized to the equivalent of a few spoonfuls of spinach a day experienced a significant boost in muscle quality, mass, and strength.