Reduce the Risk of Cancer and Heart Disease by Eating These Flavonol-Rich Foods
- Consuming flavonol, a chemical compound naturally found in fruits and vegetables, is one of the keys to good health.
- In a new study, higher flavonol intake was associated with a lower risk of death from causes such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
- Experts say eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is key to getting enough flavonol.
Flavonols – chemical compounds found in a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables – have a wide range of health benefits, including improving outcomes in cancer, cardiovascular disease, and more.
The compound, which has antioxidant properties, is found in foods like onions, apples, tomatoes and coffee, and is part of a broader class of natural chemicals regularly consumed in original foods and drinks plant called flavonoids.
Scientists have known for some time that flavonoids are
Now, results from a large population study of nearly 12,000 U.S. adults have shown even more evidence supporting flavonol’s myriad health effects. Researchers found that people who consumed more flavonol had a lower incidence of death overall, as well as a lower incidence of cancer and cardiovascular disease. The results also illustrated a dose-dependent effect, meaning that the more people consumed, the better their outcomes were compared to those who consumed less.
The study was published in
This is a long way of saying: eating more fruits and vegetables is good for your health!
“I am not at all surprised by the results of the study, because many
Additionally, researchers were also able to identify the health effects of specific flavonol compounds, such as quercetin, providing further insight into how these chemicals affect disease.
Katherine Donelan, MS, RD, an oncology dietitian at Stanford Health Care, called the findings “a no-brainer.”
“(Flavonols) are the special sauce, the magic ingredients that do the good things that we know fruits and vegetables do,” she said.
To identify associations between flavonol and mortality risk, researchers at Anhui Medical University in China used electronic records from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Three years of NHANES data, including 11,679 people aged 20 or older, were used for the research; the average age of participants was 47 years. The group was diverse, which is intentional, since NHANES is intended to represent the diversity of the United States population. Participants were divided equally between men and women. In terms of ethnicity, about 50% were white, almost 20% were black, 16% were Mexican-American, and 17% were other ethnicities.
Using the participants’ dietary data, the researchers were able to estimate their average consumption of flavonols per day. Flavonols can be found in a variety of natural foods, including onions, kale, lettuce, grapes, and berries; as well as black tea, chocolate and wine.
In addition to total flavonol consumption, they also estimated daily consumption of four specific flavonol subtypes:
Over an average follow-up time of eight years, researchers tracked the number of deaths among participants, as well as their estimated flavonol intake to observe any association between the two.
People who ate more flavonol daily were less likely to die from general causes, as well as some specific causes, compared to those who ate the least, the research found. The risk of all-cause mortality decreased by a third among those who consumed the most flavonol.
The risk of cancer death and cardiovascular death also improved with increased flavonol consumption; the risk of death from cancer has fallen by about half, by a third for cardiovascular disease and by a quarter for Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, the flavonol myricetin had the strongest individual association with Alzheimer’s disease, reducing the risk by two-thirds at the highest consumption level.
Individually, isorhamnetin, kaempferol, myricetin, and quercetin all showed associations with improved outcomes in all-cause mortality and cancer-specific mortality.
The study did not show an association between flavonol consumption and risk of mortality from diabetes.
To ensure your diet contains enough flavonols, be sure to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Additionally, you can ensure you eat a variety of flavonols by varying fruits and vegetables with different colors.
“I advise my patients to consume a variety of deep-hued plants in their diet daily… Just get more color and vary the color!” It’s great to eat kale salad every day, but it only gives you deep color. Add berries to your salad or choose different plants each night to get different colors,” Kirkpatrick said.
Donelan emphasized that rather than trying to consume a certain amount of flavonol during the day, people should instead simply focus on incorporating more fresh fruits and vegetables into their diet.
“If you remember from elementary school, eat five fruits and vegetables a day. Many adults these days don’t even understand that,” she said.
“For the average person, I wouldn’t focus on getting a certain amount of any type of phytochemical. I would just focus on eating, you know, five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables,” Donelan said.
Consuming more flavonol, a chemical naturally found in fruits and vegetables, reduces the risk of death from causes such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to a new study.
People in the study who ate the most flavonol saw their risk of cancer death cut in half, compared to those who ate the least.
Experts say the key to getting more flavonols in your diet is to eat a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.
