If you’re going to have something unhealthy, is there anything you can eat with it to help reduce the damage it might cause?
When you compare the vascular function of vegetarians and meat eaters, the healthy ability of blood vessels to expand and allow more blood flow is better for vegetarians. And not just a little—we’re talking four times better, as you can see below and at 0:24 in my video. Foods That Can Help Protect Your Arteries From Saturated Fat.
Vegetarians tend to be younger, smoke less, be leaner, and have lower rates of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease. But the researchers controlled for all that and allowed only healthy non-smokers into the study. They also recruited a group of meat-eaters who were similarly thin, with similar blood pressure and nearly identical cholesterol levels. Yet a healthy group of omnivores still have their arteries supplied by vegetarians, and the longer one goes without meat, the better. The level of high arterial activity is related to the number of years of eating meat without meat. Instead of their arteries getting worse over time as they got older, they got better the longer they ate that way, as you can see below and at 1:03 in mine. video.
This suggests that a vegetarian diet, in itself, has a direct beneficial effect on artery function and may help explain the lower rates of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular mortality.
Since the researchers were able to control for other known risk factors, they figured it must be diet. But what is the quality of food? Is it simply the absence of harmful effects of the flesh? Or could it be that vegetarians eat more healthy plant foods? For example, they may eat more vegetables a day.
The researchers compared two junk foods—Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin, and hash browns and Frosted Flakes—and found that the high-fat meal accelerated cardiovascular dysfunction within a few hours, but the sugary cereal meal did not. They blame the oil, but it may just be an animal fat, as 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 effect of using nuts on artery function shows that nuts actually lead to significant improvements over time.
Enough to combat the artery-clogging effects of a salami sandwich? The answer is yes for walnuts, but no for almonds.
Just like some fruits are better than others, like blueberries over bananas, some nuts are better than others. Walnuts look like blueberries are nuts.
What about blackberries? That would be the blueberries themselves. A randomized, controlled crossover trial examined the effects of cooked blueberries, blueberries, or nothing at all. Researchers fed people buns made from white flour, eggs, butter, and salt—high in sugar and eggs—and saw a gradual decline in vascular function over the next six hours. But when the equivalent of a cup of wild berries was added to that same bun, there was a huge boost in blood vessel activity, almost as if the berries had just been mixed with water, as you can see below and at 2:57 in mine. video.
About the same amount of strawberries failed to rescue the vascular function as two cream cheese frostings, whipped cream, sugar syrup, egg, and bacon, but that’s a heavy load to carry.
How about testing açai berries with foods that contain the same fat? One and a half frozen packets of açai smoothie mixed with half a small banana in water significantly improved arterial function compared to a control smoothie with the same banana and water, colored like the açai version. (Though, obviously, it would taste different.) You can see the results below and at 3:20 of mine. video.
Another group of researchers went all out and did a two blind mena randomized, controlled trial with raspberries. They measured artery function for 2 hours and again 24 hours after participants drank a smoothie made from frozen red raspberries (about ¾ cup or about 1½ cups, mixed with water) or a placebo drink designed to match both the color and taste. The fake berry drink didn’t affect artery function, but both raspberry drinks did, as you can see below and at 3:56 in mine. video.
Note that the cup dose seems to work as well as the 1½ cup dose, which is what you see with blueberries: A plateau of benefits after a cup.
The bottom line is that eating “quantities found in eating red raspberries significantly improves” 24-hour artery function. Yes, that’s true, but at the end of the day, you might be up about 1%. At the population level, however, each 1% increase is associated with a 12% reduction in the risk of a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke. It all starts with just having a berry smoothie.
How about berries juice? The researchers tested five different concentrations of cranberry juice, as well as a placebo control that was apparently indistinguishable by color and taste. A 25% cranberry juice drink provided a small bump in vascular function at two hours; the 50% juice was still active eight hours later. The other three—the 75% juice, the almost pure juice, and the ultraconcentrated juice—also improved vascular function within hours of use, as you can see below and at 4:52 in mine. video.
But this, like that last raspberry study, involves straight berries without the food being digested by the arteries.
Can berry juice stop the vascular dysfunction caused by a high-fat diet, which can reduce the function of the arteries within hours? Researchers made a cocktail of grapes, blueberries, strawberries, lingonberries, and black aronia berries, but found no significant change after a high-fat diet. (Yes, drinking berries alone may improve artery function, but it’s better than nothing.)
However, how about drinking something a little more unusual than black aronia berries, like orange juice? Study participants were given a high-fat meal of ham and cheese croissants, along with a cup of water, orange juice, green tea, or red wine. Their arteries didn’t like croissants much, and orange juice was useless, as was a cup of green tea and red wine, so, maybe it’s best not to eat ham and cheese croissants in the first place.
In fact, drinking orange juice with a fatty meal can actually make things worse. When study participants were given bacon and cheese muffins with or without orange juice, researchers found that orange juice led to longer-term higher blood fat levels. This may be because the body likes to burn for energy all the free sugars that are quickly absorbed into the juice—which means sugar. not they are covered in cell walls as they are throughout the fruit.
Doctor’s Note
This is the third in a series of three videos about fast food. If you missed the first two, check it out How One Diet Can Damage Your Arteries and Lungs again Can Exercise Counteract High-Fat Diet?.
If you want to go deeper into the effects of certain foods, check out the related posts below.
