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Grapes Put the Breaks on HypertensionHypertension, Inflammation Diminish Among High Salt Diets Supplemented with GrapesPublished on November 3rd, 2008By Consumer Health Advocate, Frank Mangano |
Salty snack noshers, take heart: You may now have a way to
decrease your risk of hypertension naturally – eat more grapes.
Researchers believe there’s something about the chemical composition
of grapes – likely their richness in antioxidants – that seems to
reduce high blood pressure levels, this after feeding several groups
of rats variations in their diets of salt and grape extract.
Researchers from the University of Michigan’s Cardioprotection Research
Laboratory fed each group of laboratory rats (12 in each) the same weight in
food, some high in sodium, others low in sodium. Some of the rats were also
fed grape extract in powdered form; others were fed no grape extract at all.
Among those that were fed the grape extract, it made up no more than 3
percent of their overall diet, independent of whether or not the group was
on a high or low-salt diet.
Some of the findings were fairly clear-cut and unsurprising. For instance,
those that were on the low-salt diet and no grape extract had lower blood
pressure levels than those on the high-salt diet but with the grape extract.
But when comparing the groups with the same kind of diets – low-salt to
low-salt or high-salt to high salt – and adding grapes to the equation, the
inclusion or exclusion of grapes determined blood pressure levels. For
example, the rats fed the grape extract and on a high-salt diet had much
lower blood pressure readings than the other group on the high-salt diet but
sans the grape extract.
“[S]omething within the grapes themselves has a direct impact on
cardiovascular risk, beyond the simple blood pressure-lowering impact that
we already know can come from a diet rich in fruits and vegetables,” said
lead researcher Mitchell Seymour in a statement at the conclusion of the
study.
Improved blood pressure wasn’t all they found, though. They also found that
the rats consuming the grape extract – which they say had the same nutrient
quality as grapes straight off the vine – had better overall heart function,
showed less heart damage and exhibited less inflammation throughout the
body.
The 18-week study’s findings have since been published in the Journal of
Gerontology: Biological Sciences.
What explains the great grape’s heart-healing headiness? Researchers can’t
be sure, but they believe it has something to do with their high flavonoid
content, the same antioxidant found in other foods and drinks fingered as
heart-healing like green tea and red wine, raspberries and chocolate.
Of course, more research needs to be done before researchers can give any
definitiveness to grapes impact on people’s heart health, but such
human-based research is in the offing.
So, does this finding suggest one can eat salty foods and not worry about
high blood pressure? Certainly not. If it wasn’t obvious already, the
researchers found that the lowest blood pressure rates were those groups on
the low-salt diet, independent of whether or not they had grape extract.
What it does suggest, though, is that there are more health properties to
the grape than meets the eye… or should I say ‘heart’?
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