A new study shows that women who eat blueberries of strawberries two or three times a week and less prone to heart attacks than women who don't.
According to a new study conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, blueberries and strawberries have a certain compound that has many cardiovascular benefits. Thus, women that consumer two or three helpings of these fruits in a week have better heart conditions than women that don't eat these berries at all.
A compound known as dietary flavonoid is found in abundance in fruits like grapes, blueberries, strawberries and eggplants. Anthocyanins, a sub-compound of these flavonoids, help to dilate arteries that facilities the smooth flow of blood which in turn, keeps the heart healthy.
"Blueberries and strawberries can easily be incorporated into what women eat every week," said Eric Rimm D.Sc., senior author and Associate Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Mass. "This simple dietary change could have a significant impact on prevention efforts."
For the study, 93,600 women between the ages of 25 to 42, who were registered with the Nurses' Health Study II, took part in this study where they were asked to answer questioners about their diet after every four years, for 18 years.
During the course of the study, while 403 women suffered from heart attacks, it would found that the women who consumed blueberries and strawberries at least two to three times a week were 32 percent less prone to heart attacks than women who ate such fruits only once a month.
"We have shown that even at an early age, eating more of these fruits may reduce risk of a heart attack later in life," said Aedín Cassidy, Ph.D., lead author and head of the Department of Nutrition at Norwich Medical School of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom.
The findings were published in the Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
