Women's Health October 4, 2025 0 Comments

This One Food You Eat Daily Could Be Your Ultimate Shield Against Deadly Pollution Effects—Don’t Miss Out!

Ever wondered if munching on an extra apple or sneaking in some juicy berries could actually help your lungs battle the relentless grime of city air? It sounds almost too simple, right? Yet, some intriguing new research throws a fresh twist on how what you put on your plate might just be one of your lungs’ sneaky allies against air pollution. While no fruit salad miracle will magically filter out the smog, it turns out those antioxidant-packed goodies could give your lung function a fighting chance when the air quality dips. Intrigued? Let’s peel back the layers of this science and figure out how a fruity fix might be more than just a tasty treat for your respiratory health. LEARN MORE

Some new research suggests that eating fruit daily could help protect your lungs from air pollution.
The findings point to this food group’s antioxidant properties as one of the elements that may make this possible.
Here’s what’s behind the science and what you should take away from it.

You can only do so much to shield your lungs from breathing in dirty air, especially if you live in a big city with lots of pollution. But new research suggests that focusing on one area of your diet may actually help support your lungs when they’re exposed to polluted air.

While this health hack won’t *prevent* your lungs from air pollution exposure, eating plenty of fruit each day could help protect your lung function, even when you’re breathing in particulate matter. That’s the major takeaway from research recently presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam.

It’s a stretch to say that the answer to good lung health is simply to eat more fruit, but experts say there may be something to these findings. Here’s why.

Meet the experts: Anna Hansell, PhD, study co-author and director of the Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability at the University of Leicester; Jimmy Johannes, MD, pulmonologist and critical care medicine specialist at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach, CA

What did the study find?

For the study, researchers analyzed health and nutrition data from about 200,000 people who participated in the UK Biobank, paying close attention to how much fruit, vegetables, and whole grains they took in. The researchers stacked that against a measurement of the participants’ lung function called FEV₁, which looked at the amount of air the participants exhaled in one second, and their exposure to air pollution in the form of fine particulate matter (called PM2.5).

Here’s where the data gets a little technical: The researchers discovered that, for every exposure someone had to PM2.5 per five micrograms of cubic meter of air, there was a reduction of 78.1 milliliters in FEV₁ in people who didn’t eat a lot of fruit. (That was defined as having up to two servings of fruit a day) But for those who took in higher amounts of fruit—four-plus servings a day—there was only a 57.5 milliliter reduction in FEV_1.

Basically, eating higher amounts of fruit didn’t change how much pollution the participants were exposed to, but it was linked to better lung function.

How does fruit protect your lungs?

Fruit seems like a random food group to have an impact on lung health, but doctors say there may be something here—they’re just not entirely sure what it is.

“One possibility is the potential anti-inflammatory effects from having larger quantities of fruit,” says Jimmy Johannes, MD, pulmonologist and critical care medicine specialist at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach, CA. “That may somehow mitigate some of the effects of air pollution.”

Anna Hansell, PhD, study co-author and director of the Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability at the University of Leicester, agrees. “We think this is because of the way in which air pollution can damage the lung,” she says. “Air pollution contains compounds that cause oxidation, which produces oxidative stress.” (In case you’re not familiar with it, oxidative stress is an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in your body that leads to cell damage.)

“Fruits are high in antioxidants that can neutralize some of these adverse effects,” Hansell says.

What else can I do to protect my lungs from air pollution?

Hansell recommends doing what you can to lower your exposure to polluted air as much as possible. “You can think about the routes that you travel if walking or cycling—use parks or less crowded streets rather than busy roads,” she says.

Meanwhile, Dr. Johannes also suggests using a high-quality air filter in your home and running the air conditioning versus keeping a window open. “If you’re planning on exercising, find a place a little farther away from large highways or large roadways to reduce exposure,” he says.

But, while more research is needed, doing what you can to consume plenty of fruit while you’re at it can’t hurt, either.

Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.