Project leader Cathie Martin reveals her dream: plant scientists can contribute innovative ways of looking and understanding the benefits of food in our diets
Home
Anthocyanins reduce high blood pressure
Researchers assessed participants’ intake of flavonoids and relative subclass from various dietary sources as apples, blueberries, red wine and orange juice, by administering dietary questionnaires collected every 4 years. During 14 years of follow-up, about 35,000 cases of hypertension were reported. Subjects in the highest category of anthocyanin intake, mainly from blueberries and strawberries, reported an 8% reduction in risk of hypertension compared with that for participants in the lowest quintile of anthocyanin intake. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is the first to investigate the effect of different types of flavonoids on hypertension.
“Our findings are exciting and suggest that an achievable dietary intake of anthocyanins may contribute to the prevention of hypertension,” said lead author Professor Aedin Cassidy of the Department of Nutrition at the University of East Anglia’s Medical School. More detailed analysis allowed the scientists to see that blueberries conveyed the highest degree of protection against developing high blood pressure with a 10% lower incidence for those eating the fruit once a week. Hypertension is one of the major cardiovascular disease affecting approximately one-quarter of all adults worldwide, a leading cause of heart disease and death from a heart attack.ù
Source Link: NCBI
