NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating plenty of fruit, vegetables and fish may keep men's lungs healthy as well as their hearts, a new study shows.

Men who followed a diet closest to this "Mediterranean" ideal were half as likely as their peers with eating habits furthest from this pattern to develop chronic lung disease, Dr. Raphaelle Varraso of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues found.

But those eating the most "Western" diet -- meaning lots of refined grains, cured and red meat, desserts, sweets and French fries -- were at more than quadruple the risk of lung disease compared with those with the least Westernized eating patterns.

Fruit and fish have both been tied to better lung function and lower risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Varraso and her colleagues report in the journal Thorax. To understand how diet as a whole might influence lung health, they followed 42,917 men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1986 to 1998. They divided the men into five groups based on adherence to a "prudent" dietary pattern rich in plant-based foods, whole grains and fish. The researchers also categorized the men into five groups based on how Western their diet patterns were.

Over the 12-year period, 111 men reported a new diagnosis of COPD. Those in the top tier for the prudent diet pattern were half as likely to have developed lung disease than those in the bottom tier. For the men with the most Western diets, lung disease risk was 4.56 times greater than for the men with the least Western diet patterns.

The researchers note that fruit and vegetables are good sources of antioxidant vitamins such as C and E, which have been tied to better lung function, while omega-3 fatty acids in fish may also contribute to lung health.

On the other hand, they add, processed meats contain nitrites, which can generate molecules in the body that may worsen lung function, while refined grains may also lead to impaired lung function by boosting blood sugar levels.

"As several foods from the Western diet...might be related to COPD, the Western diet offers a good way of summarizing the possible effects of these diverse but highly correlated foods," Varraso and her team say.