Japanese researchers have found that people who consume copious amounts of fruit and vegetables seem less prone to strokes than those who don't. Over a twenty-year period, Tetsuji Yokoyama of the Tokyo Medical and Dental University and colleagues measured vitamin C content in the blood of 880 Japanese men and 1,241 women. They compared the results with the incidence of death or disability from strokes during this same period among their study population. Those with elevated levels of vitamin C also ate the most fruits and vegetables. The association was especially strong for vegetables, they explain in the journal Stroke 1 .
Many vegetables are rich in vitamin C and other antioxidants.
These improve vascular elasticity and reduce the stickiness of blood platelets, making them less prone to forming clots. Cholesterol in the blood can be oxidized, just as iron is oxidized into rust. Oxidized cholesterol is thought to make the platelets stickier. Antioxidants control the plaques of sticky platelets that can build up inside blood vessels, narrowing them. It is not yet clear whether vitamin C is solely responsible for the benefits seen in this and some other studies.