Impact of dietary shift to higher antioxidant foods in copd: a randomized trial.

Abstract
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by increased oxidative stress. Dietary factors such as ample consumption of foods rich in antioxidants such as fruits and vegetables, might have beneficial effects in COPD patients. We investigated the association between dietary shift to foods rich in antioxidants and lung function in COPD in a 3-year prospective study. 120 COPD patients were randomized either to follow a diet based on increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables (intervention group-IG), or to follow a free diet (control group-CG). The mean consumption of foods containing antioxidants was higher in IG than in CG throughout the study period (p<0.05); The relationship between consumption of foods rich in antioxidants and FEV1 (%pred) was assessed by using a general linear model for repeated measures: the two groups overall were different in time (p=0.03) with IG showing a better outcome. In investigating the effect of several confounders (gender/age/smoking-status/comorbidities/exacerbation) in group response over time, non-significant interactions were found between confounders, group and time. Our findings suggest that a dietary shift to higher antioxidant foods intake may be associated with improvement in lung function and in this respect, dietary interventions might be considered in COPD management.(NCT00884299 – ClinicalTrials.gov).