Flavanones for Life

MINNEAPOLISDietary intake of flavanones, anthocyanidins, and certain foods rich in flavonoids are associated with reduced risk of death due to coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and all causes, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and the University of Oslo, Norway (Am J Clin Nutr, 85, 3: 895-909, 2007).
Researchers used flavonoid food composition data from three recently available U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) databases to improve estimates of dietary flavonoid intake and evaluate the association between flavonoid intake and CVD mortality.
Study participants included 34,489 postmenopausal women (from the Iowa Womens Health Sudy), who were free of CVD and completed a food-frequency questionnaire at baseline. Intakes of total flavonoids and seven subclasses were categorized into quintiles; food sources were grouped into frequency categories. Proportional hazard rate ratios (RR) were computed for CVD, CHD, stroke, and total mortality after 16 years of follow-up.
After multivariate adjustment, significant inverse associations were observed between any intake level (above no intake) of anthocyanidins and CHD, CVD and total mortality; similar associations were found between the highest intakes of flavanones and CHD, and flavones and total mortality. No association was found between overall flavonoid intake and stroke mortality. Individual flavonoid-rich foods associated with significant mortality reduction included bran (added to foods, associated with stroke and CVD); apples, pears, and red wine (associated with CHD and CVD); grapefruit (associated with CHD); strawberries (associated with CVD); and chocolate (associated with CVD).