Since being school-aged, people have been told that they need to eat healthy and to make sure that they have their five-a-day of fruit and vegetables. However, scientists are now suggesting that this may not be enough to boost health.
In a large international study, researchers found that the majority of people are not consuming enough flavanols in their diet. Working as a natural compound that is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, the study found that fewer than one in five people eat enough flavanols each day.
On top of this, after analysing dietary data from more than 30,000 people in the United Kingdom and the United States, it was found that many individuals who managed to regularly eat their recommended five daily servings of fruit and vegetables still failed to meet the target.
Scientists from the University of Reading, as well as from Harvard Medical School, the University of California Davis, and Mars, Inc., say that this intake can easily be increased by adding foods such as blueberries, plums, blackberries, broad beans, and cherries to your diet.
View 3 ImagesScientist have found that having your five-a-day may not be enough to flavanols to be beneficial.(Image: Getty Images)
Earlier research into flavanols intake found that consuming 500mg of flavanols per day helped significantly lower the risk of death from heart disease. However, this new study has found that the majority of people are not meeting this goal.
The study’s lead author, Dr Javier Ottaviani, said: “Flavanols can significantly reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, but only if you consume enough of them. Most people assume that eating plenty of fruit and vegetables covers this, but what this research shows is that the specific choices you make matter far more than the total amount.
“Including a handful of blackberries, a whole apple or having a cup of green tea alongside your meal could make a real difference to how much of these beneficial compounds you actually consume and absorb from the diet.”
With the study finding that less than 20 per cent of people reach their flavanol intake level per day to receive any health benefits, it also discovered that many people who follow standard healthy eating recommendations such as the NHS Eatwell Guide are also falling short.
View 3 ImagesPlums are found be to one of the richest sources of the flavanol compound.(Image: Getty Images)
To help people reach their daily intake, researchers have identified the foods that have some of the richest dietary sources of flavanols per serving:
- Plums (500g, roughly one punnet) – 450mg of flavanols
- Cranberries (250g, roughly one punnet) – 300mg of flavanols
- Blackberries (200g, roughly one punnet) – 250mg of flavanols
- Green tea (one 250ml cup) – 200mg of flavanols
- Broad beans/fava beans (80g, a small handful) – 140mg of flavanols
- Cherries (400g, roughly one punnet) – 130mg of flavanols
- Apples with skin (200g, one medium apple) – 110mg of flavanols
- Strawberries (200g, roughly one punnet) – 90mg of flavanols
- Blueberries (150g, roughly one punnet) – 80mg of flavanols
- Pinto beans (40g, two tablespoons dry) – 70mg of flavanols
The recent results, which have been published in the journal Food and Function, has also raised some questions about current nutrition recommendations and if they could be adapted to do a better job in aiding users to obtain other beneficial compounds from their diet.
Professor Gunter Kuhnle of the University of Reading said: “Five-a-day is the right message, but we may need to think more carefully about which five.
“Different fruits and vegetables offer very different nutritional benefits beyond vitamins and minerals, and as our understanding of these compounds grows, there is a real opportunity to make dietary guidance more specific and more effective. This research is a step towards understanding what that might look like in practice.”
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Concluding their research, scientists highlighted that while eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is an important part of a healthy diet, choosing certain types of food could have a better impact on your heart health.
So next time you are at the supermarket picking up your weekly food shop, maybe consider picking up some of the scientists’ recommendations to help get closer to the 500mg flavanol target.