A high quality diet emphasizing vegetables, fruit, nuts, whole grains, legumes, and fish improves your physical fitness – especially if you are middle aged, according to a new study.
Eating the right foods can boost your cardiorespiratory fitness, improving oxygen use in your body as much as walking an additional 4,000 steps a day, according to a study just published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Link Between High Quality Diet and Fitness
“This study provides some of the strongest and most rigorous data thus far to support the connection that better diets may lead to higher fitness,” said study author Dr. Michael Mi of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. “The improvement in fitness we observed in participants with better diets was similar to the effect of taking 4,000 more steps each day.”
The average age of study participants was 54. It turns out, that was the sweet spot for the best results.
“In middle-aged adults, healthy dietary patterns were strongly and favorably associated with fitness even after taking habitual activity levels into account,” said Dr. Mi. “The relationship was similar in women and men, and more pronounced in those under 54 years of age compared to older adults.”
Heart and Lungs
Good cardiorespiratory fitness improves the function and durability of the heart, lungs, blood vessels, and muscles.
The heart and lungs work particularly closely depending on an efficient transfer of oxygen. As a result, a problem with one can become a problem with the other.
For instance, you may feel shortness of breath from physical exertion. That is because the heart is not able to pump your blood efficiently. The result is that less oxygen is getting to your lungs.
Conversely, a lung problem may cause your heart to work harder to get oxygen from your lungs into your blood.
High Cost of Disease
Every year 877,500 Americans die of heart disease or stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). That is one-third of all deaths. In addition, the cost to the healthcare system is $216 billion annually. Also, the economy loses $147 billion in worker productivity.
The annual cost per patient to treat cardiovascular disease in the United States is $18,953, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Benefits of Good Cardiorespiratory Health
A high quality diet that improves your cardiorespiratory system leads to a higher level of fitness. That can stave off heart disease, a Mayo Clinic study determined.
Other studies have found additional benefits from improving cardiorespiratory health.
Having high cardiorespiratory endurance may lower the risk of developing high blood pressure, according to a 2017 study published in The American Journal of Medicine. In addition, a 2015 study determined that cardiorespiratory fitness results in better cognitive performance and brain activity.
“There are already many compelling health reasons to consume a high quality diet, and we provide yet another one with its association with fitness,” said Dr. Mi. “A Mediterranean-style diet with fresh, whole foods and minimal processed foods, red meat and alcohol is a great place to start.”
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