Blueberries & other foods protect your heart....

Today's post: Monday, 3-24-2008

Last week on Thursday a very interesting story was in the NewsMax Health Alerts email I get that reports research that showed that anthocyanins give your heart substantial protection.

The researchers in that story found that lab rats that had been fed anthocyanins in their food got much smaller heart attacks when the researchers triggered them on purpose than those fed with virtually no anthocyanins.

And, in human food, the foods that tend to have the most anthocyanins are berries & purple grapes. Blueberries have multiple health benefits & contain anthocyanins. Similar to this heart protective effect, eating blueberries also tends to prevent strokes.

Bilberries & the supplement bilberry extract tend to protect the capillaries in your eyes & optic nerves. Bilberries are very similar to blueberries & contain anthocyanins.

Taken together, this set of things suggests that eating such foods & taking such supplements tends to prevent cardiovascular disease, strokes, & heart attacks in the first place. And, this new research suggests if you do have a heart attack for other reasons, it will be significantly smaller with a much greater chance you will survive & recover. That’s double protection.

So, eating or taking blueberries, blueberry extract supplements, bilberry extract supplements , blackberries, dark purple grapes, concord grape juice & other similar foods & supplements that contain anthocyanins will protect your heart.

The researchers also stated that this class of phytonutrients called polyphenols or flavonoids may be similarly protective. That includes such foods as green tea & onions – even apples with the skin. They may be right.

Studies have found that drinking tea & green tea is protective for your heart.

Eating onions, particularly raw, boosts your HDL level by up to 20 or 30 % -- which is a very large effect. That’s quite heart protective.

And, taking aged garlic supplements &/or eating some raw garlic has been shown to keep the surface of your arteries, the endothelium, healthy & able to respond flexibly. That helps prevent or moderate high blood pressure. I’ve even seen studies reported that doing this has helped reverse plaque build up in people’s arteries. (Onions & garlic are cousins biologically. They are both high in flavonoids.)

Lastly, this information is another reason to get such foods that are organically grown if at all possible. Studies show that produce grown organically is significantly higher in flavonoids & other desirable phytonutrients than produce grown with pesticides & herbicides.

On a more practical note, I’ve found that Whole Foods Markets are a good source of organic produce. Our local Whole Foods Market carries organic frozen blueberries, organic green tea, & organic apples for example.