By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, August 15, 2005, abstracted from “Some Dietary and Adipose Tissue Carotenoids Are Associated with the Risk of Nonfatal Acute Myocardial Infarction in Costa Rica” in the July 2005 issue of the Journal of Nutrition
Put simply, they give fruits and vegetables their color. But carotenoids, the special antioxidants found only in fruits and vegetables, have been overwhelmingly proven to be improve your health by protecting your cholesterol against oxidation1 and help protect you from cancer2 by keeping the DNA in our cells healthy.3
Now a new study4 finds another health benefit of carotenoids: helping prevent heart attacks, a condition that claims nearly 200,000 Americans lives each year.5
In the study, nearly 1,500 cases of first-time heart patients who were residents of Costa Rica were studied by measuring carotenoid and tocopherol levels using High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Tocopherols are another class of potent antioxidants that protects your arteries.6 A food frequency questionnaire was also used to assess nutrition intake.
At the end of the study, researchers found that only beta-carotene, and not tocopherols, “showed a significant inverse relation” with heart attack risk. The group in the lowest fourth had 70% more heart attacks that the group in the highest fourth. For the researchers, this study “suggests that beat-carotene protects against (heart attacks).”
Although no recommendations were made regarding intakes of fruits and vegetables to get your beta-carotene and elicit a protective effect against heart attacks, here is just another piece of evidence showing why fruits and vegetables, and particularly carotenoids, need to be centerpiece in your diet.
Reference:
1 Chopra, M. Influence of increased fruit and vegetable intake on plasma and lipoprotein carotenoids and LDL oxidation in smokers and nonsmokers. Clin Chem 2000; 46(11): 1818-29
2 Bertram JS. Cancer prevention by retinoids and carotenoids: independent action on a common target. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2005 May 30;1740(2):170-8. Epub 2005 Jan 25. Review
3 Hix LM. Bioactive carotenoids: potent antioxidants and regulators of gene expression. Redox Rep. 2004;9(4):181-91. Review
4 Furtado J. Some dietary and adipose tissue carotenoids are associated with the risk of nonfatal acute myocardial infarction in Costa Rica. J Nutr. 2005 Jul;135(7) :1763-9
5 National Vital Health Statistics Report: 2002 Deaths. Volume 52 Number 13, published February 11, 2004
6 Ros E. A walnut diet improves endothelial function in hypercholesterolemic subjects: a randomized crossover trial. Circulation. 2004 Apr 6;109(13):1609-14
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