[ health front ] N E W S T H A T ’ S G O O D F O R Y O U
color may equal brain power
Fill your plate with high-flavonoid foods like apples, strawberries, oranges, and peppers, and you may be giving your brain a boost, according to a study published in July 2021. The researchers followed more than 49,000 women and 27,000 men for 20 years, sending them regular questionnaires about the foods they ate and asking them twice to self-evaluate their cognitive abilities with a focus on short-term memory. They found that those with the highest flavonoid intake had 20 percent less risk of self-reported cognitive decline than those with the lowest flavonoid intake. “There is mounting evidence suggesting flavonoids are powerhouses when it comes to preventing your thinking skills from declining as you get older,” said study author Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, of Harvard University. “Our results are exciting because they show that making simple changes to your diet could help prevent cognitive decline.” Flavonoids are potent antioxidants that occur naturally in plants. People in the study who ate at least half a serving per day of foods including oranges, peppers, celery, grapefruit, apples, and pears had the best cognitive results, said Dr. Willett—who added that even those who had incorporated flavonoids into their diets more recently benefited. SOURCE “Study: Adding color to your plate may lower risk of cognitive decline,” American Academy of Neurology, 7/28/21
an apple a day . . .
. . . may help keep cardiovascular disease (CVD) away. That’s according to the findings of researchers who studied the effects of eating apples, which have antiinflammatory properties, on obesity-linked inflammation, which contributes to CVD. Participants in the trial who ate three whole Gala apples daily for six weeks saw improvement in their plasma biomarkers for inflammation and in their plasma antioxidant capacity as compared to a control group that avoided apples. “Six-week daily whole Gala apple consumption may be an effective dietary strategy to mitigate the obesity-associated inflammation that exacerbates CVD risk, without weight loss,” the researchers concluded. SOURCE “Daily apple consumption reduces . . . inflammatory biomarkers in adults with overweight and obesity” by D.M. Liddle et at., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 8/21
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