Two fruits that greatly prevent frailty and susceptibility to falls
Consumption of plant foods containing dietary compounds called flavonols, such as. the apples or blackberriesmay reduce the likelihood of developing frailty, according to a new study published in the ‘American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’.
Approximately 10% to 15% of older people experience frailty.a geriatric syndrome that leads to increased risk of falls, fractures, disability, hospitalization, and mortality. Current dietary recommendations for the prevention of frailty focus primarily on protein intake. However, there are many other foods that may have health benefits.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
“It may be that the old saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away (or frailty) has some validity,” the authors comment. Our results suggest that for each additional 10 mg of flavonol intake per day, the likelihood of frailty was reduced by 20%. People can easily consume 10 mg of flavonols per day, since a medium apple contains about 10 mg of flavonols.
“Although there was no significant association between total flavonoid intake and frailty, one higher intake of flavonols (one of the flavonoid subclasses) was associated with lower odds of developing frailty. Specifically, higher quercetin intake was the flavonoid that had the strongest association with prevention of frailty. These data suggest that there may be particular subclasses of flavonoids that have the greatest potential as a dietary strategy for the prevention of frailty,” says coauthor Shivani Sahni, along with Courtney L. Millar, both of the Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, and the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, in the United States.
The authors suggest that future research should focus on the flavonol or quercetin dietary interventions for the treatment of frailty.as well as that research in racially and ethnically diverse participants is also needed.
