Eating fruit could cut the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 40 percent, according to a recent study.

The findings from the seven year follow-up study of nearly 0.5 million people in the China Kadoorie Biobank found that the more fruit people ate, the more their risk of cardiovascular disease declined.

"Cardiovascular disease, including ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, is the leading cause of death worldwide. Improving diet and lifestyle is critical for cardiovascular disease risk reduction in the general population but the large majority of this evidence has come from western countries and hardly any from China," researcher Huaidong Du said in a statement.

For the seven-year study, researchers collected data from nearly 452,000 participants with no history of cardiovascular disease and not on anti-hypertensive treatment at baseline from the China Kadoorie Biobank(1) conducted in 10 different areas of China, 5 rural and 5 urban. Habitual consumption of fruit was recorded at baseline according to five categories: never, monthly, one to three days per week, four to six days per week, daily.

The researchers found that compared to people who never ate fruit, those who ate fruit daily cut their cardiovascular disease risks by 25 to 40 percent (around 15 percent for IHD, around 25 percent for ischaemic stroke and 40 percent for haemorrhagic stroke). There was a dose response relationship between the frequency of fruit consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

"Our data clearly shows that eating fresh fruit can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, including ischaemic heart disease and stroke (particularly haemorrhagic stroke). And not only that, the more fruit you eat the more your cardiovascular disease risk goes down. It does suggest that eating more fruit is beneficial compared to less or no fruit," Du said.

Researchers said the results show the benefit of eating fruit in the healthy general population and in patients with cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

"Fruit consumption is an effective way to cut cardiovascular disease risk and should not only be regarded as 'might be useful'. Policies are needed to promote the availability, affordability and acceptability of fresh fruit through educational and regulatory measures," researchers said in the study.