A vegetable-heavy diet could help prevent acute pancreatitis, a new study suggests. The pancreas, which is located behind the stomach, releases digestive enzymes to break down food. Acute pancreatitis is a potentially life-threatening disease that occurs when those enzymes begin to eat the pancreas itself. For the study, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, examined 80,000 Swedish adults for 11 years after they answered questions about their diets in 1997. The goal of the research was to gain a better understanding of a possible connection between antioxidant levels, which are affected by diet, and an increased risk of acute pancreatitis.
