New research led by Queen’s University Belfast suggests adding berries, red wine, aubergine, and grapes to your diet could help improve your heart health.
Published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this comprehensive study collated all available high-quality human study data, and the results highlight the health benefits of eating foods that are rich in anthocyanins, such as berries, red wine, grapes, and aubergine.
Anthocyanins are part of the flavonoid family, plant-derived compounds. They are what give many plants their vibrant colours, but they also have health- promoting properties.
Flavonoids have anti-inflammatory properties, which help protect the body’s cells from damage as we age. They also support blood vessel health and may help maintain glucose and insulin levels.
The research, which was in collaboration with researchers from Tufts University,
Boston and the University of East Anglia, England, integrated data from 18 population-based studies and 65 randomised controlled trials.
Led by Prof Aedín Cassidy, Co-Director of the Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at Queen’s, the study suggests that simple and achievable dietary changes could have a significant impact in reducing the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Prof Cassidy said: “By pooling all the data from high-quality population-based studies and randomised controlled studies, our data suggests that higher habitual intakes of anthocyanins are associated with a lower risk of developing illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes.
“These benefits were backed up by the available data from randomised controlled trials, which showed that readily achievable anthocyanin intakes, as low as 50mg/d, improve cardiometabolic biomarkers in healthy participants.
“Our study shows clinically relevant improvements in blood flow, elasticity of the arteries and insulin levels in the combined trial data and these improvements could translate into significant long-term health benefits.”
