A Healthy Diet Can Reduce the Impact of Air Pollution on Lung Function

You’ve heard lots of bad news about air pollution, and with good reason: air pollution is associated with reduced lung function. Now, here’s some good news about air pollution!

Over 90% of people in the world are exposed to levels of air pollution that exceed WHO safety guidelines. That’s bad news because high levels of air pollution are associated with reduced lung function.

But here’s some good news. Eating lots of fruit may help offset some of the damage air pollution causes to your lungs.

The study examined data from over 150,000 people in the UK. It compared the amount of fruit people ate with their lung function and the amount of air pollution they are exposed to.

For every increase in exposure to fine particulate matter of 5mcg per cubic meter of air, there was a 78.1ml reduction in lung function, as measured by FEV1, the amount of air you can exhale in one second, in the low fruit group. But here’s the good news. In the high fruit group, there was a significantly lesser 57.5ml reduction. So, air pollution is still really bad. But eating lots of fruit really helps.

The benefit was not seen in men, probably because the men in the study generally ate less fruit.

So, best would be for the world to reduce air pollution. But, until that happens, increase your consumption of fruit!

Presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam, September-October 2025.

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