The study was presented at the scientific annual meeting of the American Heart Association yesterday (10/0/0), and found that daily intake of a small amount of flavonoids-compounds found in berries, tea, chocolate, wine and many other fruits and plants-is associated with reducing the risk of heart disease.
This connection (not to be confused with causal discovery) is not new; Previous studies have also found a link between flavonoids and heart disease risk. But Nicola Bondonneau, a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Western Australia, said that this new study is one of the largest so far, which provides stronger evidence for the idea that flavonoids may protect the heart. Five magical ways to keep your heart healthy.
In this study, Bondono and her team analyzed the data of nearly 53,000 people who participated in the long-term Danish diet, cancer and health research that began in the 1990s. At the beginning of this study, participants filled out a questionnaire, which contained information about what food they ate and how often they ate it. Subsequently, the researchers followed up the participants' health status for more than 20 years. After 23 years of follow-up, about 12 years,
Researchers have found that people who consume 500 mg or more flavonoids every day have a lower risk of ischemic heart disease (narrowing of major blood vessels in the heart, reducing blood flow to the heart) and stroke, as well as peripheral arterial disease (narrowing of blood vessels in the body, reducing blood flow throughout the body). The researchers found that the latter was the most relevant.
Bondeno pointed out that 500 mg of flavonoids is "very easy to eat in one day". She said that you can get so many flavonoids from "a cup of tea, a handful of blueberries, maybe some broccoli". Bondonno told Live Science that they also found that, on average, once healthy people exceeded the threshold of 500 mg/day, there was not much difference in how much flavonoids they consumed.
Flavonoids have anti-inflammatory properties and have protective effects on heart disease. She said that inflammation is a risk factor for heart disease.
The researchers pointed out that the link between flavonoids and reducing the risk of heart disease varies from population to population. For example, among smokers, the daily intake of 500 mg of flavonoids has not found a link between flavonoids and reducing the risk of heart disease; On the contrary, smokers need to consume more flavonoids to see this connection clearly. The same results are also found in people who drink and men. However, the researchers found that it is in these three groups that the intake of flavonoids is related to minimizing risks.
In their analysis, Bondono and her team ensure that people's whole diet is taken into account, because people tend to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables (on the contrary, Bondono said that they eat a lot of flavonoids). Generally speaking, their eating habits will be better, eating more fiber and fish and eating less processed foods, which are "related to heart disease". When they adjusted these diets in the report, they found that the link between flavonoid intake and reducing the risk of heart disease still existed, but it was a little weak. In other words, flavonoids may not be as important as a healthy diet in the risk of heart disease. [1 1 kind of processed food is different from real food]
In addition, this study was only conducted in Denmark, and although these results should not be extrapolated, "but this connection has been seen in others," Bondono said.
These findings have not been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Originally published in Life Science.