Nutrition: An orange a day may keep a stroke away

Actually, it doesn’t have to be an orange, eating citrus fruits in general may lower women’s risk of ischemic’blood clot-related’strokes according to study results published in the latest issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers looked at the food intake of more than 69,000 women over a 14-year period and found that women who ate high amounts of citrus’largely from oranges and grapefruits’had a 19 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke compared with women who consumed the least amounts. They credited a family of compounds called flavonoids‘also found in other fruits, vegetables, red wine and chocolate’which may provide protection by improving blood vessel function, as well as being anti-inflammatory. The research was funded by the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health.

Of course, there are many more benefits from citrus‘including lots of vitamin C and fibre’and a wide variety of ways to add more to your diet. Try this Citrus Chicken with Lentil & Carrot Salad, Baked Salmon with Citrus Salad, a colourful Beet and Orange Soup, or Lemon Chicken with Broccoli.

What are your favourite recipes that use grapefruit, oranges, lemons and limes?