20 Year Harvard Study Reveals Orange Juice May Reduce Chances Of Memory Loss By 47%

By Luke Miller

20 Year Harvard Study Reveals Orange Juice May Reduce Chances Of Memory Loss by 47%

A 20-year study from Harvard University has just been published in Science Daily and it found a correlation between those who drink orange juice and have better cognitive function.

The 20-year study was led by Changzheng Yuan of Harvard University, and observed 27,842 male health professionals with an average age of 51. Subjects were asked to fill out questionnaires about their daily food consumption, including what type and how many portions of fruits and vegetables they ate. They then repeated the questionnaires every 4 years over a 20 year period.

The participants were also tested on their thinking and memory skills at least four years before the study ended at an average age of 73. The test included six questions including: “Do you have more trouble than usual remembering a short list of items, such as a shopping list?” and “Do you have more trouble than usual following a group conversation or a plot in a TV program due to your memory?”

They found that 55 percent of participants had good thinking and memory skills, 38 percent had moderate skills, and 7 percent had poor thinking and memory skills.

The group was then separated into five groups based upon their fruit and vegetable consumption. For vegetables, the top group ate around six servings per day, whereas the lowest group ate around 2. In regards to the fruits, the highest group ate about three servings a day, compared to just half a serving for the lowest.

They found that the men who ate the highest amounts of vegetables were “34 percent less likely to develop poor thinking skills than the men who consumed the least amount of vegetables.” The also found that the participants who drank orange juice daily were “47 percent less likely to develop poor thinking skills than the men who drank less than one serving per month.”

Study author Changzheng Yuan, ScD, of Harvard T.H. said “One of the most important factors in this study is that we were able to research and track such a large group of men over a 20-year period of time, allowing for very telling results,” he continued “Our studies provide further evidence dietary choices can be important to maintain your brain health.”

The study authors also admitted correlation, not causation by saying “The study does not show that eating fruits and vegetables and drinking orange juice reduces memory loss; it only shows a relationship between them.”