Could enjoying a crunchy apple or a handful of blackberries help to ward off frailty? A study reveals that plant-based foods packed with dietary compounds known as flavonols, such as apples and blackberries, could potentially be associated with a decreased risk of developing frailty. Particularly, the flavonoid quercetin found in these fruits was deemed most crucial for frailty prevention.

Imagine this: for each 10 mg increase in your daily flavonol intake—roughly one medium-sized apple—the odds of frailty might decrease by 20 percent. That’s a delicious way to promote strength and vitality!

Frailty, typically marked by reduced muscle strength and fatigue, affects about 10 percent of those aged over 65, a number that shoots up to 25-50 percent for people aged 85 and above. While existing dietary guidelines for frailty prevention often revolve around protein, the researchers highlight the potential benefits of other foods.

The study authors, Shivani Sahni and Courtney Millar, from Harvard Medical School and the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Ageing Research, affirm: “This data suggests that there may be particular subclasses of flavonoids that have the most potential as a dietary strategy for frailty prevention.”

So, let’s take a leaf out of the book of old wisdom. Maybe an apple a day could indeed keep frailty at bay!

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