ty in their bodies, Dr. Edgar Miller of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found. Miller said he believed it was more important to get antioxidants naturally in food than to try to get them in supplements. Writing in Circulation, a journal published by the American Heart Association, Miller said he tested 123 healthy people to see the effects of eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. He was looking specifically for antioxidant action.

Antioxidants have been found to neutralise free radicals, the charged molecules that can damage cells and cause diseases ranging from heart disease to cancer. Miller`s team studied 123 people, who for three weeks ate the average American diet, which is high in fat and low in fruits and vegetables. Breath levels of ethane, a breakdown product caused by the oxidation of fatty acids in the blood, were regularly monitored. After three weeks a third of the volunteers were switched to a diet that added nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day but that was still high in fat. Another third ate 10 servings of fruits and vegetables and switched to low-fat

foods. Both groups that ate added vegetables showed much lower levels of ethane, Miller found. Such diets have also been shown to lower blood pressure. "These results support the hypothesis that diets rich in fruits and vegetables can increase the antioxidant capacity of blood, which protects against lipis (fat) oxidation," he said in a statement. "This study provides additional scientific rationale for recommendations to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables and reduce dietary fat intake as a means to prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease," he added. But Miller did not directly compare people who take supplements to people who get their vitamins naturally. Vegetables contain many different components found to be beneficial in heart disease, including fiber, magnesium, potassium, vitamins B, C and E and carotenoids, substances that lead to synthesis of vitamin A.