Chronic bronchitis is a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that involves a cough that lasts for three months or more per year for two years.
It is often blamed on smoking, but a new study published in BMC Public Health wanted to know whether diet had anything to do with it.
And the results were shocking. Not only did they find that diet was influential, they found that eating right reduces people’s risk of bronchitis by a shocking 92%.
The researchers used the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI-2010) as a reference.
The study method was meticulous and well-structured. The scientists recruited 84 people diagnosed with COPD and compared them with 252 healthy individuals. The researchers assessed their diet, smoking habits, and physical activity levels using questionnaires.
The Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI-2010) score, a tool used to gauge diet quality, ranges from zero to 120. A score of zero represents a poor diet, whereas 120 signifies a diet that aligns perfectly with the HEI-2010 dietary guidelines.
They then used statistical tools to analyze the relationship between their subjects’ HEI-2010 scores and the odds of developing COPD.
These were the precise findings:
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1. Individuals with higher HEI-2010 scores were 66% less likely to have COPD when compared with those with low HEI-2010 scores.
2. People with the highest HEI score were 82% less likely to have COPD.
3. Even after they excluded the effects of body mass index, people with higher HEI-2010 scores had a staggering 92% reduced likelihood of having COPD.
Therefore, a higher quality diet is associated with a considerably lower chance of developing COPD, including chronic bronchitis.
It’s therefore safe to conclude that chronic bronchitis is mostly preventable via sensible eating.
So, what exactly is the HEI-2010?
The Healthy Eating Index 2010 is a tool developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to measure diet quality and assess how well the foods a person eats aligns with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The foods that score highly are fruit (excluding juice), vegetables, green vegetables, legumes, soy products, whole grains, low-fat dairy, nuts, seeds, poultry, seafood, lean meat, and higher intake of unsaturated fats compared with saturated varieties.
The foods that detract from your score are refined grains, salt, saturated fats, solid fats, alcohol, added sugars, and other empty calories.
If you look at the impressive length of the recommended list compared with the shortness of the non-recommended list, it shouldn’t be too difficult to enjoy a diet that protects you from COPD and chronic bronchitis.