Dietary interventions, including increasing fruit and vegetable intake and decreasing meat intake, may not only help slow the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but may actually improve lung function.
Treating COPD with Diet
120 COPD patients were randomized into two groups. Half were told to boost their fruit and vegetable consumption, and the other half stayed on their regular diet. The intervention group was told to eat at least one more serving a day of fruits or vegetables. And they did, and they did for three years. More fruit, and more vegetables, than control.
Here’s the control group. Slowly but surely, they got worse. That’s what happens in COPD (emphysema); you get worse, and worse, and then you die.
The group told to eat at least one more measly serving of fruits or vegetables every day started out the same, but didn’t get worse. One year, two years, three years. In fact, if anything, it looks like their lung function got a little better. That’s not supposed to happen; you’re supposed to get worse.
Could be the antioxidant effect of fruits and vegetables; could be the anti-inflammatory effect; or, frankly, it may not directly be the fruits and vegetables at all. When you eat more of one thing, you tend to eat less of another. For example, the addition of fruits and vegetables resulted in a decreased consumption of meat, which is known to be a pro-oxidant.
Either way, though, there is now hope. These findings suggest that a dietary shift to higher-antioxidant food intake may be associated with improvement in lung function. And, in this respect, dietary interventions might be considered in COPD management.
The tobacco industry viewed these landmark findings a little differently. Instead of adding fruits and vegetables to one’s diet to treat emphysema, wouldn’t it be simpler to just add them to the cigarettes? And voilà, the addition of açaí berries to cigarettes evidently had a protective effect against emphysema in smoking mice.
Next, they’re going to try to add berries to meat. I can always count on the journal Meat Science. Now, adding fruit extracts to burgers was not without its glitches, though. The blackberries literally dyed burger patties with a distinct purplish color—though infusing lamb carcasses with kiwifruit juice before rigor mortis sets in does evidently improve tenderness. And, it is possible to improve the nutritional profile of frankfurters with powdered grape seeds—though there were complaints that the grape seed particles were visible in the final product. And if there’s one thing we know about hot dog eaters, it’s that they’re picky about what goes in their food.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- de Moura RS, Pires KM, Santos Ferreira T, Lopes AA, Nesi RT, Resende AC, Sousa PJ, da Silva AJ, Porto LC, Valenca SS. Addition of açaí (Euterpe oleracea) to cigarettes has a protective effect against emphysema in mice. Food Chem Toxicol. 2011 Apr;49(4):855-63.
- Impact of dietary shift to higher-antioxidant foods in COPD: a randomised trial. Keranis E, Makris D, Rodopoulou P, Martinou H, Papamakarios G, Daniil Z, Zintzaras E, Gourgoulianis KI. Eur Respir J. 2010 Oct;36(4):774-80.
- Ganhão R, Morcuende D, Estévez M. Protein oxidation in emulsified cooked burger patties with added fruit extracts: Influence on colour and texture deterioration during chill storage. Meat Sci. 2010 Jul;85(3):402-9.
- Özvural, Emin Burçin and Vural, Halil. 2011. The Effects of Grape Seed Extract on Quality Characteristics Of Frankfurters. Journal Of Food Processing And Preservation, pp. 1745-4549
Images thanks to Karl / flickr
120 COPD patients were randomized into two groups. Half were told to boost their fruit and vegetable consumption, and the other half stayed on their regular diet. The intervention group was told to eat at least one more serving a day of fruits or vegetables. And they did, and they did for three years. More fruit, and more vegetables, than control.
Here’s the control group. Slowly but surely, they got worse. That’s what happens in COPD (emphysema); you get worse, and worse, and then you die.
The group told to eat at least one more measly serving of fruits or vegetables every day started out the same, but didn’t get worse. One year, two years, three years. In fact, if anything, it looks like their lung function got a little better. That’s not supposed to happen; you’re supposed to get worse.
Could be the antioxidant effect of fruits and vegetables; could be the anti-inflammatory effect; or, frankly, it may not directly be the fruits and vegetables at all. When you eat more of one thing, you tend to eat less of another. For example, the addition of fruits and vegetables resulted in a decreased consumption of meat, which is known to be a pro-oxidant.
Either way, though, there is now hope. These findings suggest that a dietary shift to higher-antioxidant food intake may be associated with improvement in lung function. And, in this respect, dietary interventions might be considered in COPD management.
The tobacco industry viewed these landmark findings a little differently. Instead of adding fruits and vegetables to one’s diet to treat emphysema, wouldn’t it be simpler to just add them to the cigarettes? And voilà, the addition of açaí berries to cigarettes evidently had a protective effect against emphysema in smoking mice.
Next, they’re going to try to add berries to meat. I can always count on the journal Meat Science. Now, adding fruit extracts to burgers was not without its glitches, though. The blackberries literally dyed burger patties with a distinct purplish color—though infusing lamb carcasses with kiwifruit juice before rigor mortis sets in does evidently improve tenderness. And, it is possible to improve the nutritional profile of frankfurters with powdered grape seeds—though there were complaints that the grape seed particles were visible in the final product. And if there’s one thing we know about hot dog eaters, it’s that they’re picky about what goes in their food.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- de Moura RS, Pires KM, Santos Ferreira T, Lopes AA, Nesi RT, Resende AC, Sousa PJ, da Silva AJ, Porto LC, Valenca SS. Addition of açaí (Euterpe oleracea) to cigarettes has a protective effect against emphysema in mice. Food Chem Toxicol. 2011 Apr;49(4):855-63.
- Impact of dietary shift to higher-antioxidant foods in COPD: a randomised trial. Keranis E, Makris D, Rodopoulou P, Martinou H, Papamakarios G, Daniil Z, Zintzaras E, Gourgoulianis KI. Eur Respir J. 2010 Oct;36(4):774-80.
- Ganhão R, Morcuende D, Estévez M. Protein oxidation in emulsified cooked burger patties with added fruit extracts: Influence on colour and texture deterioration during chill storage. Meat Sci. 2010 Jul;85(3):402-9.
- Özvural, Emin Burçin and Vural, Halil. 2011. The Effects of Grape Seed Extract on Quality Characteristics Of Frankfurters. Journal Of Food Processing And Preservation, pp. 1745-4549
Images thanks to Karl / flickr
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Title
Treating COPD with Diet
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
See also the prequel to this video, Preventing COPD with Diet, and my other videos on reversing chronic disease. Also, What’s in a Burger? and What is Really in Hot Dogs? may be of interest.
And if you were going to infuse lamb carcasses with kiwi fruit juice, would the juice of green or yellow kiwis be healthier? See Antioxidant content of 3,139 foods. And be sure to check out my videos on kiwi fruits.
Check out my associated blog posts for further context: Eating To Extend Our Lifespan; Treating COPD with Diet; Preventing and Treating Kidney Failure With Diet; Head Shrinking from Grilling Meat; The Science on Açaí Berries; and Raspberries Reverse Precancerous Lesions.
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