At least one cup a day
Consumption of at least 60 mg/day of vegetable nitrate (one cup of green leafy vegetables) can significantly reduce their risk of cardiovascular diseases, according to new research from Edith Cowan University.
In the Danish prospective cohort study, Bondonno et al. observed an inverse association between vegetable nitrate intakes, up to 60 mg/day, and hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases; more specifically, moderate to high nitrate intakes were associated with a lower risk of ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, peripheral artery disease, and atrial fibrillation.
A higher
vegetable nitrate intake was also associated with a lower baseline systolic
blood pressure and diastolic pressure; the results suggest that ensuring the
consumption of nitrate-rich vegetables, corresponding to one cup of green leafy
vegetables, may lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
“Identifying evidence-based strategies to prevent cardiovascular disease is a global research priority,” said Dr. Catherine Bondonno from the Institute for Nutrition Research at Edith Cowan University and her colleagues.
“An important strategy to reduce
cardiovascular disease risk is to identify optimal diets and their
cardioprotective components.”
“One such potentially
cardioprotective component is dietary inorganic nitrate, an exogenous source of
nitric oxide.”
“The primary aim of our study was to
investigate the association between vegetable nitrate intake and incident
cardiovascular diseases in the Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study (DDCH)
cohort,” they noted.
“Vegetable nitrate was the focus as
approximately 80% of total dietary nitrate intake comes from consumption of
vegetables.”
The researchers examined data from
53,150 Danish participants (aged 52-60) of the DDCH study.
They found that people who consumed
the most nitrate-rich vegetables had about a 2.5 mmHg lower systolic blood
pressure and between 12 to 26% lower risk of heart disease.
“Our results have shown that by
simply eating one cup of raw (or half a cup of cooked) nitrate-rich vegetables
each day, people may be able to significantly reduce their risk of
cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Bondonno said.
“The greatest reduction in risk was
for peripheral artery disease (26%), a type of heart disease characterized by
the narrowing of blood vessels of the legs, however we also found people had a
lower risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart failure.”
The scientists also found that the
optimum amount of nitrate-rich vegetables was one cup a day and eating more
than that didn’t seem to give any additional benefits.
“People don’t need to be taking
supplements to boost their nitrate levels because the study showed that one cup
of leafy green vegetables each day is enough to reap the benefits for heart
disease,” Dr. Bondonno said.
“We did not see further benefits in
people who ate higher levels of nitrate rich vegetables.”
“Hacks such as including a cup of
spinach in a banana or berry smoothie might be an easy way to top up our daily
leafy greens,” she added.
“Blending leafy greens is fine, but
don’t juice them. Juicing vegetables removes the pulp and fiber.”
The results were published in the European Journal of Epidemiology.
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C.P. Bondonno et al.
Vegetable nitrate intake, blood pressure and incident cardiovascular disease:
Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study. Eur J Epidemiol, published
online April 21, 2021; doi: 10.1007/s10654-021-00747-3
