Provided by My 2 Cents
Diet, schmiet. We know what healthy food is, just as we know what unhealthy food is. It's more a matter of acting upon what we know. So is it any surprise when the only diets that have survived the test of peer-reviewed publication (as opposed to Internet & TV show advertorials) include a varied number of fruits & vegetables in them, eg Mediterranean diet. Specifically, one way to teach our kids to eat is the consume the colors of the rainbow each day in terms of fruits & vegetables (not Skittles and M&M's). Of course, that raises the question of which fruit or vegetable is more important. For instance, the darker ones theoretically have more antioxidants.
However, in a nice twist, a study was published early online last week (prior to release in print in November) concluding that high consumption of white-fleshed fruits & vegetables is associated with lower stroke risk, all other things being equal. Just what are these white-fleshed fruits & vegetables? Apples & pears, apple juice & sauce, bananas, cauliflower, chicory, cucumber, mushroom, garlic, leek & onion.
In the prospective, population-based cohort study, the authors followed for 10 years 20,069 men & women average 41-42yo w/o known baseline cardiovascular disease. Consumption of green, orange/yellow & red/purple fruits & vegetables was not associated with stroke risk while each 25g/d increase in white-fleshed fruit & vegetable consumption lowered stroke risk by 9%. Given that the participants consumed 118g/d of white-fleshed fruits & vegetables, this calculates out to a 42% reduction. When comparing those in the upper quartile of consumption (>171g/d) to those in the lowest quartile (<78g/d), the authors noted a 52% lower risk of stroke.
I found it particularly gratifying to know that the average participant also consumed 62g of green, 87g of orange/yellow, and 57g of red/purple fruits & vegetables daily in addition to their 118g/d of white-fleshed fruits & vegetables. Still, when all is said & done, I'm a lumper & not a splitter. Rather than have you each just one color, I'm still going to recommend eating the colors of the rainbow each day. By the way, don't forget to optimize your blood pressure, cholesterol & sugar in order to best lower your stroke risk!
 After 17 years in Northern California, I headed south where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of California, Riverside, in 1984 and promptly entered the private sector. A glutton for punishment, I returned for post-baccalaureate studies in Computer Science in 1987 after which I earned my Doctor of Medicine in 1991 from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University. Love called & romance blossomed, so I returned to the San Francisco Bay Area where I completed my Family Medicine residency at Merrithew Memorial Hospital at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine in 1994.
After 3 years wandering around the country as a locum tenens physician and collecting a dozen state licenses along the way, I was feeling rather masochistic once more. So I applied for subspecialty training, completing my Fellowship in Geriatrics at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in 1998. I joined the faculty as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and was appointed Director of the Ambulatory Geriatric Center in Greenville, NC. In 2003, I was recruited by Cenegenics Medical Institute to build it into the ubiquitous presence it is today in your airline inflight magazines. After 7 years as an employed physician, I left to return to my family medicine & geriatric roots by developing a small private practice which this website represents.
I have served as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Nevada, School of Medicine since 2004 and recently became an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Family Medicine & Geriatrics at the Touro University Nevada College of Medicine. Along the way, I have written many articles, given many presentations, and made myself available to both patients and colleagues. I plan to continue more of the same (but without the middle-man!). For more information, go to http://www.alvinblin.com/ and http://www.linkedin.com/in/alvinblin.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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