If you have something unhealthy, can you eat something with it to reduce the damage?
If you compare the vascular function of vegetarians and meat eaters, the healthy ability of arteries to expand and allow more blood flow is significantly better among those who consume a vegetarian diet. And not just a little – we talk four times better, as you can see below and at 0:24 in my video Foods that help protect your arteries from saturated fat.
Vegetarians tend to to be be younger, smoke less, be thinner, and have lower rates of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease. But the researchers controlled for it all and only allowed healthy non-smokers to study. They also recruited a group of meat-eaters who were similarly lean, had comparable blood pressure and nearly identical cholesterol levels. However, the truly healthy group of omnivores have their veins given to them by vegetarianism, and the more meat-free someone is, the better. The level of upper vascular function is related to the number of years of consuming meat. Instead of their vascular function getting worse over time, the more they ate, the better, as you can see below and at 1:03 in mine. video.
This suggests that vegetarian diets independently have positive effects on vascular function and may help explain lower rates of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular death.
Because the researchers were able to control for other known risk factors, they thought it must be diet. But what aspect of food? Is it just the lack of harmful effects of meat? Or could it also be that vegetarians eat more wholesome and healthy foods? For example, they can be to eat up to one more serving of vegetables per day.
Researchers comparison two small meals—an Egg McMuffin, a Sausage McMuffin, and a Brownie Frosted Flakes—and found that the fatty fast-food meal damaged blood vessel activity within hours, but the sugary cereal meal did not. They blamed fat, but it could be just that an animal fat because high-fat plant foods such as nuts do not have the same effect. In fact, a systematic review of all randomized controlled trials on the effects of nut consumption on arterial function shows that walnuts really lead to significant improvement over time.
Enough to calculator vascular effects of salami sandwiches? The answer is yes for peanuts, but no for almonds.
Like some fruits are better than others, like blueberries over bananas, some nuts are better than others. The walnut looks like a walnut.
How about berry blueberries? That would be it to be himself blue. A randomized controlled crossover trial tested the effects of cooked blueberries, raw blueberries, or no blueberries at all. Researchers fed people buns made from white flour, eggs, butter, and salt, which were mostly loaded with sugar and eggs, and saw a gradual decline in vascular activity over the next six hours. But when the equivalent of a cup of wild blueberries was added to the same bun, blood vessel activity increased as if the blueberries had just been mixed with water, as you can see below and at 2:57 in my video.
About as many strawberries failed to save vascular function from two cheese blintzes, whipped cream, sugar syrup, eggs and bacon, but it’s too heavy.
About what? test açai berry vs food with similar amount of fat? Frozen ice packs with half a small banana mixed in water significantly restored arterial function compared to a control smoothie with the same banana and water, which was tinted to the acai version. (Although, of course, it would taste different.) You can see the results below and at 3:20 on my page. video.
Another group of researchers all came out and done a double blinda randomized, controlled trial with raspberries. They measured arterial function at 2 hours and again 24 hours after participants drank either a frozen red raspberry smoothie (about ¾ cup or about 1½ cups mixed with water) or a placebo drink designed to match both color and taste. The fake berry drink had no effect on vascular activity, but both raspberry drinks did, as you can see below and at 3:56 in my video.
Note that the ¾ cup dose seemed to be work the same as the dose of 1½ cups that you are see with blueberries: Benefits plateau after about a cup.
The bottom line is that consuming “dietarily available amounts of red raspberries in an acute makes it better“Vascular function is up to 24 hours. Yes, that’s true, but by the end of the day you can only go up about 1%. But at the population level, every 1% is an increase. related with a 12% reduction in the risk of a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke. All because of just one berry smoothie.
About Berry juice? Researchers was tested five different concentrations of cranberry juice, along with a placebo control that differed in apparent color and taste. Drinking 25% cranberry juice for two hours gives a little shock to the work of the arteries; 50% juice worked after eight hours. The other three—the 75% juice, the nearly pure juice, and the ultraconcentrated juice—also improved arterial function within hours of consumption, as you can see below and at 4:52 in me. video.
But this, like the last raspberry study, only involved right berry without any vascular food.
Can berry juice Stop vascular damage caused by a high-fat meal that can reduce vascular activity within hours? Researchers made a cocktail of grapes, blueberries, strawberries, lingonberries and black currant berries, but did not find any significant changes after the high-fat meal. (Of course, just drinking berries can improve artery function, but it’s better than nothing.)
Well, about what to drink something a little less exotic than black aronia berries, like orange juice? Study participants were given a high-fat meal of ham and cheese croissants, along with a glass of water, orange juice, green tea, or red wine. Their veins didn’t like croissants much, and orange juice was useless, as was a cup of green tea and red wine, so it’s probably best not to have ham and cheese croissants in the first place.
in fact, to drink orange juice with a fatty meal can actually make it worse. When study participants were given bacon and cheese muffins with or without orange juice, the researchers found that orange juice led to longer-term elevated blood fat levels. This may be because the body prefers to burn all the rapidly absorbed free sugars in the juice, i.e. sugar, for energy. no are covered in cell walls, as they are throughout the fruit.
Dr.’s comment
This is the third in a series of three videos about fast food. If you missed the first two, check it out How one food can damage your arteries and lungs and Can exercise counter a high-fat diet?.
If you want to go deeper into the effects of specific foods, see the related posts below.
