Eating more fruit may help reduce the harmful effects of air pollution on lung function, according to new research presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam.
The study, led by PhD student Pimpika Kaewsri from the University of Leicester’s Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability, examined how diet interacts with exposure to PM2.5.
Kaewsri explained that over 90% of the global population lives with air pollution levels exceeding World Health Organization guidelines, and this exposure is well known to impair lung function.
Meanwhile, diets rich in fruits and vegetables have consistently been linked to healthier lungs. The research team wanted to determine whether fruit intake could help offset pollution-related damage.
Using data from around 200,000 participants in the UK Biobank, the researchers assessed dietary habits, lung function (measured by FEV1—the volume of air exhaled in one second), and exposure to PM2.5. They also accounted for other factors such as age, height, and socioeconomic background.
Results revealed a striking difference between groups with high versus low fruit consumption. Among women, every 5 µg/m³ increase in PM2.5 exposure was linked to a 78.1ml reduction in FEV1 in those with low fruit intake, compared with a smaller 57.5ml reduction in those with higher intake. This suggests that fruit consumption may provide some protection against air pollution’s harmful respiratory effects.
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, saying: ‘This difference in dietary patterns may help explain why the potential protective effect of fruit against air pollution was only observed in women.’
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.’
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