Taking Food To Heart

by Monika Rice
Powdered Cherries Fight Fat and Heart Disease

Preliminary research from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center showed that rats receiving whole tart-cherry powder mixed into their high-fat diet didn’t gain as much weight or body fat as rats that didn’t eat the cherry meal. In addition, the cherry-fed rats showed lower levels of molecules commonly linked to the kind of inflammation that leads to heart disease and diabetes. Cholesterol and triglycerides also tested much lower than those in the control rats. The U-M researchers have now launched  a pilot-phase human trial.

Artichoke Leaves Keep Arteries Clean

For people with moderately raised cholesterol levels, an over-the-counter herbal supplement of artichoke-leaf extract might provide an effective remedy, say researchers from the University of Reading, U.K. During the small trial, 75 volunteers were given a daily dose of 1,280 milligrams of an artichoke-leaf extract or a matched placebo for 12 weeks. The results: volunteers on the herbal supplement were able to lower their blood cholesterol in modest yet statistically significant numbers.

Beetroot Juice beats Hypertension

A new study by The London School of Medicine reports that 500 milliliters of beetroot juice a day was enough to make high blood pressure numbers plummet. Even more surprising, the effects in the volunteers who drank the juice were almost immediate — within an hour of ingestion, followed by a peak drop after about three to four hours. Thereafter, a continuation in the reduction of blood pressure was observed for up to 24 hours. The researchers say it’s the nitrate in the beets. When nitrate is swallowed, it is either converted into nitric oxide in the stomach or directly absorbed into the circulation as nitrite. Either way, it was the nitrite in the circulation that correlated with the peak time of the drop in blood pressure — the signal absent in the control group. This may be a simple solution for hypertension.