An Apple a Day Keeps Heart Disease Away

This might be a slightly different version of the well known saying, but that is what a new research says – that apples can help keep heart disease at bay. The study covering more than 34,000 women found that apples rich in flavonoids are one of three foods – along with red wine and pears – that help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Women face higher risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) as well as cardiovascular disease (CVD) in comparison to men; however post-menopausal women are even worse off. This is why women of all ages are encouraged to consume more fruits and vegetables, including apples and apple products for heart health.

The new study conducted jointly by researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of Oslo (Norway) focused specifically on post-menopausal women because of their increased risk of heart disease. Subjects were selected from the ongoing Iowa Women’s Health Study. The participants were all post-menopausal women and had each been monitored for dietary intake and other health outcomes for nearly 20 years.

The researchers used the assessment of flavonoid-compound content of foods from a government database to analyse the effect of such foods on the women in the study. They found that flavonoid intake in general and from specific foods is inversely associated with mortality from CVD and CHD among the women participants.

The researchers conducted extensive analysis of what the women ate and the types of cardiovascular-related disease they experienced. The overall flavonoid content of an extensive list of foods was also taken into consideration.

This led the researchers to the conclusion that consumption of apples, pears and red wine were linked with the lowest risk for mortality related to both CHD and CVD (not just one or the other). The government database that the researchers used indicated that there are a wide variety of flavonoid compounds in apples, making them the best of the lot.

“Flavonoids are compounds found in small quantities in numerous plant foods, including fruits and vegetables, tea, wine, nuts and seeds, and herbs and spices,” said the university researchers. Previous studies have already found antioxidant properties in flavonoids and linked these to reduction of oxidation of bad cholesterol (LDL) which in turn is linked in multiply ways to development of CVD.

According to the researchers, their study is the first prospective one of post-menopausal women that is concentrated on the intake and impact of total and specific flavonoid subclasses. In their opinion, “Dietary intakes of flavanones, anthocyanins, and certain foods rich in flavonoids were associated with reduced risk of death due to CHD, CVD and all causes.”

Published in the March 2007 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study comes in the wake of updated heart disease prevention guidelines for women just released by the American Heart Association. In the guidelines, AHA has urged women to increase fruit and vegetable intake to help prevent both short-term and long-term heart disease risk.

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