A daily cup of tea could help you to
enjoy better health late in life — however if you’re not a tea drinker, there
are other things you can add to your diet.
The key is flavonoids, which are
naturally occurring substances found in many common foods and beverages such as
black and green tea, apples, nuts, citrus fruit, berries and more.
They have long been known to have many health benefits —
however new Edith Cowan University (ECU) research shows they may be even better
for us than previously thought.
The Heart Foundation supported a study
of 881 elderly women (median age of 80), which found they were far less likely
to have extensive build-up of abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) if they
consumed a high level of flavonoids in their diet.
AAC is the calcification of the
abdominal aorta — the largest artery in the body which supplies oxygenated
blood from the heart to the abdominal organs and lower limbs — and is a
predictor of cardiovascular risk such as heart attack and stroke.
It has also been found to be a reliable predictor
for late-life dementia.
ECU Nutrition and Health Innovation
Research Institute researcher and study lead Ben Parmenter said while there
were many dietary sources of flavonoids, some had particularly high amounts.
“In most populations, a small group of
foods and beverages—uniquely high in flavonoids—contribute the bulk of total
dietary flavonoid intake,” he said.
“The main contributors are usually black or green tea, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, red wine, apples, raisins/grapes and dark chocolate.”
The flavonoid family
There are many different types of
flavonoids, such as flavan-3-ols and flavonols, which the study indicated
appear to also have a relationship with AAC.
Study participants who had a higher
intake of total flavonoids, flavan-3-ols and flavonols were 36-39 per cent less
likely to have extensive AAC.
Black tea was the study cohort’s main
source of total flavonoids and was also associated with significantly lower
odds of extensive AAC.
Compared with respondents who didn’t
drink tea, participants who had two-to-six cups per day had 16-42 per cent less
chance of having extensive AAC.
However, some other dietary sources of flavonoids such as fruit juice, red wine and chocolate, did not show a significant beneficial association with AAC.
Not just tea
Though black tea was the main source of
flavonoids in the study — likely due to the age of the participants — Mr
Parmenter said people could still benefit from flavonoids without putting the
kettle on.
“Out of the women who don’t drink black
tea, higher total non-tea flavonoid intake also appears to protect against
extensive calcification of the arteries,” he said.
“This implies flavonoids from sources
other than black tea may be protective against AAC when tea is not consumed.”
Mr Parmenter said this was important as
it allows non-tea drinkers to still benefit from flavonoids in their diet.
“In other populations or groups of
people, such as young men or people from other countries, black tea might not
be the main source of flavonoids,” he said.
“AAC is a major predictor of vascular
disease events, and this study shows intake of flavonoids, that could protect
against AAC, are easily achievable in most people’s diets.”
‘Higher habitual dietary flavonoid intake associates
with less extensive abdominal aortic calcification in a cohort of older women’
was published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and
Vascular Biology.
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