A US study has found that eating grapes may help lower blood pressure and protect against heart disease.
The study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences found that rats fed on a grape-rich diet had lower blood pressure, better heart health and stronger heart muscles.
Researchers from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center, conducted the study on laboratory mice in order to study the effect of regular table grapes - a combination of green, red, and black grapes - that were fed to rats in powdered form, as part of either a high or low salt diet.
They found that rats fed on grape enriched diet had lower blood pressure, better heart function, reduced inflammation throughout their bodies and less signs of heart muscle damage as compared to the rats that ate a salty diet but no grapes.
Study leader, Mitchell Seymour of the Cardioprotection Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan, said: "These findings support our theory that something 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."
Dr Steven Bolling, professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School, said the mice in the study were in a similar situation as millions of people in US who have high BP related to their diets and who develop heart failure because of prolonged hypertension. "The inevitable downhill sequence to hypertension and heart failure was changed by the addition of grape powder to a high-salt diet,” he said.
Flavonoids are also found in apples, strawberries, tomatoes, apricots, blueberries, pears, raspberries, black beans, cabbage, onions, parsley, and pinto beans, and could be having an effect on blood pressure, Bolling said. Many studies show that it can reduce cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease.
Various studies have linked grape consumption with anti-aging and anti-cancer properties. One in three middle-aged people in the UK has high blood pressure, which leads to increased risk of heart failure or heart related diseases. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease claims the life of an individual every 37 seconds and is the leading cause of death in the US.
