If you’re going to have something unhealthy, is there anything you can eat with it to help mediate the damage it may cause?
Foods to Help Protect Your Arteries from Saturated Fat
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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
If you compare the artery function of those who don’t eat meat to those who do, the healthy ability of arteries to dilate and let more blood flow is significantly better among those eating vegetarian––and not just by a little; we’re talking four times better. Well duh, vegetarians tend to be younger, smoke less, be slimmer, and have lower rates of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease. But, the researchers controlled for all that. They only let healthy nonsmokers into the study, and recruited a group of meat-eaters who were about just as slim, on average, about the same blood pressures, even practically the same cholesterol––a really healthy cohort on omnivores. Yet they still got their arteries handed to them by the vegetarians, and the longer someone was meat-free, the better. The degree of superior artery function correlated with the number of years eating meat-free. Instead of their artery function worsening over time as they aged, it got better the longer they ate that way. This suggests that vegetarian diets, by themselves, have a direct beneficial effect on artery function, and may help to account for the lower incidence of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular mortality.
Since researchers were able to control for other known risk factors, they figured it must be the food. But what aspect of the food? Is it simply the lack of the deleterious effect of meat? Or could it also be because the vegetarians may simply be eating more whole healthy plant foods––for example, up to a serving a day more vegetables?
When researchers compared two crappy meals, Sausage and Egg McMuffins to Frosted Flakes, and found the fatty meal impaired artery function within hours, but the sugary meal didn’t, they blamed the fat. But it may just be the animal fat, since high-fat whole plant foods like nuts don’t have the same effect. In fact, if you look at a systematic review of all the randomized controlled trials on the effect of nut consumption on artery function, you find that nuts actually make things better over time.
Enough to counter the artery-crippling effects of a salami sandwich? Let’s find out. And the answer is yes for walnuts, but no for almonds. Just like there are some fruits that are better than others––like blueberries over bananas––there are some nuts that are better than others. And walnuts appear to be the blueberries of nuts.
What about the blueberry of berries? Blueberries themselves. A randomized, controlled, crossover trial of cooked blueberries, raw blueberries, or no blueberries at all. If you feed people buns made out of white flour, eggs, butter, and salt, and fill them full of mostly sugar and eggs, you get a gradual drop in artery function over the next six hours. But add the equivalent of a cup of wild blueberries to that same bun, and instead, you get a big boost in artery function––almost as if you had just mixed the blueberries with water.
About the same amount of strawberries failed to rescue artery function from the likes of two cheese blintzes, with whipped cream, a sugary syrup, egg, and bacon. But that is quite the heavy load to bear.
What about açai berries versus a meal with a similar amount of fat? One and a half-frozen smoothie packs with half a small banana in water were able to significantly rehabilitate arterial function, compared to a control smoothie with the same banana and water colored to look like the açai one––though obviously it would have tasted differently. This group of researchers went all out and performed a double-blind randomized controlled trial with raspberries, measuring artery function after two hours and then 24 hours after drinking about ¾ of a cup of frozen red raspberries (about 187g) blended with water (or about a cup and a half), versus a placebo drink meant to match both color and taste. The fake berry drink had no effect on artery function, but the other two did.
Note the ¾ cup dose seemed to work just as well as the cup and a half dose, which is what you see with blueberries: the benefits plateau after about a cup.
The bottom line is that consumption of dietarily achievable amounts of red raspberries acutely improves artery function for up to 24 hours. You say, “Yeah, but by the end of the day, you’re only up like one percent.” Ah, but at a population level, each one percent increase is associated with a 12 percent reduction in risk of a cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke. All from just having a berry smoothie.
What about berry juice? Five different concentrations of cranberry juice were used, along with a placebo control evidently indistinguishable in color and taste. The 25 percent cranberry juice drink gave a little bump at two hours; the 50 percent juice was still working eight hours later. The 75 percent juice, the one that was nearly pure juice, and the ultra-concentrated juice also improved artery function within hours of consumption. But this, like that last raspberry study, just involved straight berries without some artery-crushing meal.
Would berry juice be able to stop artery dysfunction caused by a high-fat meal this unhealthy, squeezing down artery function within hours? Researchers created a cocktail of grapes, lingonberry, blueberry, strawberry, and black Aronia berry, and were able to turn this, into this. No significant change after the high-fat meal. Of course, if you had just drunk those berries alone, you’d probably get an improvement, but it’s better than nothing.
Well, what about something a little less exotic than black Aronia berries? What about OJ? Participants were provided a high-fat meal of ham and cheese croissants, along with a cup of either water, orange juice, green tea, or red wine. The arteries didn’t much like the croissants, and OJ was useless, as was a cup of green tea and red wine. So, it’s probably best to not eat ham and cheese croissants in the first place.
In fact, drinking orange juice with a fatty meal could actually make things worse. If you give people bacon and cheese muffins with or without orange juice, the OJ can lead to a prolongation of elevated fat in the blood, as your body preferentially burns for energy all the rapidly-absorbed free sugars in the juice––meaning sugars not encased in cells walls like in whole fruit.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Lin CL, Fang TC, Gueng MK. Vascular dilatory functions of ovo-lactovegetarians compared with omnivores. Atherosclerosis. 2001;158(1):247-51.
- Chiu THT, Huang H-Y, Chiu Y-F, et al. Taiwanese vegetarians and omnivores: dietary composition, prevalence of diabetes and IFG. PLoS One. 2014;9(2):e88547.
- Vogel RA, Corretti MC, Plotnick GD. Effect of a single high-fat meal on endothelial function in healthy subjects. Am J Cardiol. 1997;79(3):350-4.
- Neale EP, Tapsell LC, Guan V, Batterham MJ. The effect of nut consumption on markers of inflammation and endothelial function: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ Open. 2017;7(11):e016863.
- Bhardwaj R, Dod H, Sandhu MS, et al. Acute effects of diets rich in almonds and walnuts on endothelial function. Indian Heart J. 2018;70(4):497-501.
- Rodriguez-Mateos A, Del Pino-García R, George TW, Vidal-Diez A, Heiss C, Spencer JPE. Impact of processing on the bioavailability and vascular effects of blueberry (Poly)phenols. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014;58(10):1952-61.
- Richter CK, Skulas-Ray AC, Gaugler TL, Lambert JD, Proctor DN, Kris-Etherton PM. Incorporating freeze-dried strawberry powder into a high-fat meal does not alter postprandial vascular function or blood markers of cardiovascular disease risk: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017;105(2):313-22.
- Alqurashi RM, Galante LA, Rowland IR, Spencer JP, Commane DM. Consumption of a flavonoid-rich açai meal is associated with acute improvements in vascular function and a reduction in total oxidative status in healthy overweight men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016;104(5):1227-35.
- Istas G, Feliciano RP, Weber T, et al. Plasma urolithin metabolites correlate with improvements in endothelial function after red raspberry consumption: A double-blind randomized controlled trial. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2018;651:43-51.
- Rodriguez-Mateos A, Rendeiro C, Bergillos-Meca T, et al. Intake and time dependence of blueberry flavonoid-induced improvements in vascular function: a randomized, controlled, double-blind, crossover intervention study with mechanistic insights into biological activity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013;98(5):1179-91.
- Matsuzawa Y, Kwon T-G, Lennon RJ, Lerman LO, Lerman A. Prognostic value of flow-mediated vasodilation in brachial artery and fingertip artery for cardiovascular events: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Heart Assoc. 2015;4(11):e002270.
- Rodriguez-Mateos A, Feliciano RP, Boeres A, et al. Cranberry (Poly)phenol metabolites correlate with improvements in vascular function: A double-blind, randomized, controlled, dose-response, crossover study. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2016;60(10):2130-40.
- Rouyer O, Auger C, Charles A-L, et al. Effects of a high fat meal associated with water, juice, or champagne consumption on endothelial function and markers of oxidative stress and inflammation in young, healthy subjects. J Clin Med. 2019;8(6):859.
- Muggeridge DJ, Goszcz K, Treweeke A, et al. Co-ingestion of antioxidant drinks with an unhealthy challenge meal fails to prevent post-prandial endothelial dysfunction: an open-label, crossover study in older overweight volunteers. Front Physiol. 2019;10:1293.
- Coelho RCLA, Hermsdorff HHM, Gomide RS, Alves RDM, Bressan J. Orange juice with a high-fat meal prolongs postprandial lipemia in apparently healthy overweight/obese women. Arch Endocrinol Metab. 2017;61(3):263-8.
Motion graphics by Avo Media
- acaí berries
- almonds
- artery function
- atherosclerosis
- bananas
- berries
- beverages
- blueberries
- cardiovascular disease
- chronic diseases
- cranberry juice
- endothelium
- fast food
- fat
- fruit
- fruit juice
- grapes
- green tea
- heart disease
- heart health
- juice
- junk food
- nuts
- orange juice
- Plant-Based Diets
- processed foods
- raspberries
- saturated fat
- sugar
- vegans
- vegetables
- vegetarians
- walnuts
- wine
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
If you compare the artery function of those who don’t eat meat to those who do, the healthy ability of arteries to dilate and let more blood flow is significantly better among those eating vegetarian––and not just by a little; we’re talking four times better. Well duh, vegetarians tend to be younger, smoke less, be slimmer, and have lower rates of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease. But, the researchers controlled for all that. They only let healthy nonsmokers into the study, and recruited a group of meat-eaters who were about just as slim, on average, about the same blood pressures, even practically the same cholesterol––a really healthy cohort on omnivores. Yet they still got their arteries handed to them by the vegetarians, and the longer someone was meat-free, the better. The degree of superior artery function correlated with the number of years eating meat-free. Instead of their artery function worsening over time as they aged, it got better the longer they ate that way. This suggests that vegetarian diets, by themselves, have a direct beneficial effect on artery function, and may help to account for the lower incidence of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular mortality.
Since researchers were able to control for other known risk factors, they figured it must be the food. But what aspect of the food? Is it simply the lack of the deleterious effect of meat? Or could it also be because the vegetarians may simply be eating more whole healthy plant foods––for example, up to a serving a day more vegetables?
When researchers compared two crappy meals, Sausage and Egg McMuffins to Frosted Flakes, and found the fatty meal impaired artery function within hours, but the sugary meal didn’t, they blamed the fat. But it may just be the animal fat, since high-fat whole plant foods like nuts don’t have the same effect. In fact, if you look at a systematic review of all the randomized controlled trials on the effect of nut consumption on artery function, you find that nuts actually make things better over time.
Enough to counter the artery-crippling effects of a salami sandwich? Let’s find out. And the answer is yes for walnuts, but no for almonds. Just like there are some fruits that are better than others––like blueberries over bananas––there are some nuts that are better than others. And walnuts appear to be the blueberries of nuts.
What about the blueberry of berries? Blueberries themselves. A randomized, controlled, crossover trial of cooked blueberries, raw blueberries, or no blueberries at all. If you feed people buns made out of white flour, eggs, butter, and salt, and fill them full of mostly sugar and eggs, you get a gradual drop in artery function over the next six hours. But add the equivalent of a cup of wild blueberries to that same bun, and instead, you get a big boost in artery function––almost as if you had just mixed the blueberries with water.
About the same amount of strawberries failed to rescue artery function from the likes of two cheese blintzes, with whipped cream, a sugary syrup, egg, and bacon. But that is quite the heavy load to bear.
What about açai berries versus a meal with a similar amount of fat? One and a half-frozen smoothie packs with half a small banana in water were able to significantly rehabilitate arterial function, compared to a control smoothie with the same banana and water colored to look like the açai one––though obviously it would have tasted differently. This group of researchers went all out and performed a double-blind randomized controlled trial with raspberries, measuring artery function after two hours and then 24 hours after drinking about ¾ of a cup of frozen red raspberries (about 187g) blended with water (or about a cup and a half), versus a placebo drink meant to match both color and taste. The fake berry drink had no effect on artery function, but the other two did.
Note the ¾ cup dose seemed to work just as well as the cup and a half dose, which is what you see with blueberries: the benefits plateau after about a cup.
The bottom line is that consumption of dietarily achievable amounts of red raspberries acutely improves artery function for up to 24 hours. You say, “Yeah, but by the end of the day, you’re only up like one percent.” Ah, but at a population level, each one percent increase is associated with a 12 percent reduction in risk of a cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke. All from just having a berry smoothie.
What about berry juice? Five different concentrations of cranberry juice were used, along with a placebo control evidently indistinguishable in color and taste. The 25 percent cranberry juice drink gave a little bump at two hours; the 50 percent juice was still working eight hours later. The 75 percent juice, the one that was nearly pure juice, and the ultra-concentrated juice also improved artery function within hours of consumption. But this, like that last raspberry study, just involved straight berries without some artery-crushing meal.
Would berry juice be able to stop artery dysfunction caused by a high-fat meal this unhealthy, squeezing down artery function within hours? Researchers created a cocktail of grapes, lingonberry, blueberry, strawberry, and black Aronia berry, and were able to turn this, into this. No significant change after the high-fat meal. Of course, if you had just drunk those berries alone, you’d probably get an improvement, but it’s better than nothing.
Well, what about something a little less exotic than black Aronia berries? What about OJ? Participants were provided a high-fat meal of ham and cheese croissants, along with a cup of either water, orange juice, green tea, or red wine. The arteries didn’t much like the croissants, and OJ was useless, as was a cup of green tea and red wine. So, it’s probably best to not eat ham and cheese croissants in the first place.
In fact, drinking orange juice with a fatty meal could actually make things worse. If you give people bacon and cheese muffins with or without orange juice, the OJ can lead to a prolongation of elevated fat in the blood, as your body preferentially burns for energy all the rapidly-absorbed free sugars in the juice––meaning sugars not encased in cells walls like in whole fruit.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Lin CL, Fang TC, Gueng MK. Vascular dilatory functions of ovo-lactovegetarians compared with omnivores. Atherosclerosis. 2001;158(1):247-51.
- Chiu THT, Huang H-Y, Chiu Y-F, et al. Taiwanese vegetarians and omnivores: dietary composition, prevalence of diabetes and IFG. PLoS One. 2014;9(2):e88547.
- Vogel RA, Corretti MC, Plotnick GD. Effect of a single high-fat meal on endothelial function in healthy subjects. Am J Cardiol. 1997;79(3):350-4.
- Neale EP, Tapsell LC, Guan V, Batterham MJ. The effect of nut consumption on markers of inflammation and endothelial function: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMJ Open. 2017;7(11):e016863.
- Bhardwaj R, Dod H, Sandhu MS, et al. Acute effects of diets rich in almonds and walnuts on endothelial function. Indian Heart J. 2018;70(4):497-501.
- Rodriguez-Mateos A, Del Pino-García R, George TW, Vidal-Diez A, Heiss C, Spencer JPE. Impact of processing on the bioavailability and vascular effects of blueberry (Poly)phenols. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014;58(10):1952-61.
- Richter CK, Skulas-Ray AC, Gaugler TL, Lambert JD, Proctor DN, Kris-Etherton PM. Incorporating freeze-dried strawberry powder into a high-fat meal does not alter postprandial vascular function or blood markers of cardiovascular disease risk: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017;105(2):313-22.
- Alqurashi RM, Galante LA, Rowland IR, Spencer JP, Commane DM. Consumption of a flavonoid-rich açai meal is associated with acute improvements in vascular function and a reduction in total oxidative status in healthy overweight men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016;104(5):1227-35.
- Istas G, Feliciano RP, Weber T, et al. Plasma urolithin metabolites correlate with improvements in endothelial function after red raspberry consumption: A double-blind randomized controlled trial. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2018;651:43-51.
- Rodriguez-Mateos A, Rendeiro C, Bergillos-Meca T, et al. Intake and time dependence of blueberry flavonoid-induced improvements in vascular function: a randomized, controlled, double-blind, crossover intervention study with mechanistic insights into biological activity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013;98(5):1179-91.
- Matsuzawa Y, Kwon T-G, Lennon RJ, Lerman LO, Lerman A. Prognostic value of flow-mediated vasodilation in brachial artery and fingertip artery for cardiovascular events: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Heart Assoc. 2015;4(11):e002270.
- Rodriguez-Mateos A, Feliciano RP, Boeres A, et al. Cranberry (Poly)phenol metabolites correlate with improvements in vascular function: A double-blind, randomized, controlled, dose-response, crossover study. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2016;60(10):2130-40.
- Rouyer O, Auger C, Charles A-L, et al. Effects of a high fat meal associated with water, juice, or champagne consumption on endothelial function and markers of oxidative stress and inflammation in young, healthy subjects. J Clin Med. 2019;8(6):859.
- Muggeridge DJ, Goszcz K, Treweeke A, et al. Co-ingestion of antioxidant drinks with an unhealthy challenge meal fails to prevent post-prandial endothelial dysfunction: an open-label, crossover study in older overweight volunteers. Front Physiol. 2019;10:1293.
- Coelho RCLA, Hermsdorff HHM, Gomide RS, Alves RDM, Bressan J. Orange juice with a high-fat meal prolongs postprandial lipemia in apparently healthy overweight/obese women. Arch Endocrinol Metab. 2017;61(3):263-8.
Motion graphics by Avo Media
- acaí berries
- almonds
- artery function
- atherosclerosis
- bananas
- berries
- beverages
- blueberries
- cardiovascular disease
- chronic diseases
- cranberry juice
- endothelium
- fast food
- fat
- fruit
- fruit juice
- grapes
- green tea
- heart disease
- heart health
- juice
- junk food
- nuts
- orange juice
- Plant-Based Diets
- processed foods
- raspberries
- saturated fat
- sugar
- vegans
- vegetables
- vegetarians
- walnuts
- wine
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Title
Foods to Help Protect Your Arteries from Saturated Fat
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
This is the third in a three-video series on fast food. If you missed the first two, check out Saturated Fat Causes Artery and Lung Inflammation and Exercising to Protect Your Arteries from Fast Food.
If you want to go deeper into the effects of specific foods, see:
- Eggs and Arterial Function
- Walnuts and Artery Function
- Dark Chocolate and Artery Function
- Coffee and Artery Function
- Olive Oil and Artery Function
- Plant-Based Diets and Artery Function
- Vinegar and Artery Function
- Benefits of Blueberries for Artery Function
- The Effects of Avocados and Red Wine on Meal-Induced Inflammation
Also check out How to Boost Your Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) for Heart Health.
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