How to pollution PROOF your diet
Toxic air is ruining our health (and ageing us too!) But here top dietitian JANE CLARKE reveals how you can fight back ...with the right food
NOtHIng should be healthier than lungfuls of fresh air — the oxygen energises our body and calming breaths ease our mind. But unless we live in the wilds of the countryside, the air we breathe is likely to be anything but ‘fresh’.
In fact, it’s almost certainly a toxic cocktail of pollutants, affecting our physical and mental wellbeing each time we step outside our front door. thirty UK
towns and cities exceed air pollution limits set by the World Health Organisation (WHO), according to its latest report, including Manchester, Leeds, London and Swansea.
But it’s not just big cities on the WHO list; smaller towns like sleepy Storrington in West Sussex, Sandy in Bedfordshire and Leamington Spa in Warwickshire are also over acceptable air pollution limits — and the latter two have dirtier air, according to the WHO, than London.
Polluted air — caused by traffic fumes, particularly diesel, the burning of fossil fuels, and chemicals and heavy metals released by industry — kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year.
It triggers asthma and the bronchial problems you might expect, but has also been linked to increased risk of cancer, dementia, heart disease and diabetes.
It can also have a pervasive affect on mental health, according to a study earlier this year, which found a clear association between low levels of happiness in city dwellers and levels of air pollution.
As a dietitian for more than 30 years, I see and support people living with these conditions every day in my London clinic.
As a mum to a 16-year- old daughter, Maya, I feel frustrated that despite my best efforts to keep her healthy and happy with our lifestyle at home, I can’t control her exposure to pollutants outside the house.
But I can help her, and the patients I treat, to eat well and choose foods that
are proven to help reduce the effects of toxic air on the body. We can’t stop breathing, but we can help to beat pollution by changing what we put on our plates.
TERRIFYING TRUE COST OF DIRTY AIR
PolluTed air contains carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides and other chemical vapours. Most dangerous are fine particles — around one-30th the width of a human hair — that penetrate deep into the lungs, causing conditions such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.
From there, they can enter the bloodstream, affecting the heart and nervous system, and causing inflammation and oxidative stress throughout the body that may lead to conditions such as cancer and dementia.
High pollution rates have also been linked with reproductive issues. It even affects our skin, as the microscopic particles cause premature ageing. No wonder sales of anti-pollution make-up are soaring.
While anyone who steps outside is affected by air pollution, certain groups are more at risk. Children, adults aged 65 and above, and people who work or exercise outdoors may all be more vulnerable.
The good news is that scientists are increasingly finding a link between what we eat and the body’s ability to fight the impact of air pollution. And we’re not talking expensive supplements or obscure berries and botanicals. Simple, inexpensive everyday foods can defend the body against the assault of pollutants in our atmosphere, and actually help to repair the damage from our deadly air.
WHAT TO EAT TO BEAT POLLUTION
WHeN toxic particles from the atmosphere enter our body, they produce free radicals — unstable molecules that cause inflammation that can lead to disease.
Antioxidants from the food we eat can help protect us from harmful pollutants by neutralising the free radicals so they can’t damage cells.
Vitamin C is the most potent antioxidant in our body. Adults need 40mg daily and, as it can’t be stored in the body, that means eating vitamin C-rich foods every day to get your fix.
enjoy a grapefruit or berries at breakfast, squeeze lemon juice into a glass of water and tuck into green veg like broccoli and spinach (or whizz them into a green juice or smoothie — see recipe, right).
Vitamin C is water- soluble, so make sure you’re drinking plenty of fluid throughout the day to maximise its benefits.
Vitamin e is another crucial immunity-boosting antioxidant. It’s fat soluble, so you may not absorb enough if you have a very low-fat diet. It’s found in olive oil, nuts and seeds and green leafy vegetables. As the weather gets warmer, why not start dinner, as the French do, with a small salad.
A bowl of baby spinach and avocado, with toasted seeds and a homemade dressing whizzed up with olive oil and lemon juice, will provide all the vitamin e you need (adults require 3-4mg daily).
If you add a few chopped peppers, carrots and tomatoes, you’ll also get inflammation- soothing beta carotene (it’s found in red and orange fruit and vegetables, as well as dark leafy greens). Beta carotene is converted to vitamin A in the body, where it mops up free radicals and calms inflammation.
The final piece of the antipollution puzzle is omega-3. A recent study by researchers at Harvard Medical School showed that these fatty acids, found in fish oils, nuts and seeds, can reduce harmful inflammation and oxidative stress from air pollution by between 30 and 50 per cent — another great reason to enjoy the recommended one to two portions of oily fish a week.
A tin of sardines mashed on toast is my go-to snack, as it’s quick, cheap and tasty.
For fans of the Mediterranean diet, these antioxidant and omega3-rich foods will be familiar, and there’s good reason they’re now being factored into anti-pollution eating plans.
A study from the New York university School of Medicine published in January this year found that people eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, wholegrains and olive oil were less likely to die after exposure to fine particles, ozone and nitrous oxide, than people not eating this Mediterranean-style diet.