Tag Archives: Green

Eat your Kiwi fruit

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Apples are out and Kiwis are in, now it’s three kiwis a day to keep the doctor away. Individuals from southern China can be proud of their native fruit once again, as new research shows the furry fruit lowering blood pressure.

Kiwis may be one of the smaller fruits, but they are stacked with nutritional contents in their juicy green flesh; inlcuding Lutein, a powerful antioxidant which is thought to be one of the active components in the fruit that reduces blood pressure.

Researchers who were led by Mette Svendsen of Oslo University Hospital in Norway point to lutein as having benefits, but cardiologists were quick to say that there is no magic bullet or compound that is going to take care of a person’s heart health, it’s more a question of a healthy lifestyle with a good diet and exercise. Kiwis though, can happily make up one of the recommended five a day servings of fruit and vegetables that have shown to improve health in the long run.

Kiwi fruit

Kiwi fruit

The study, funded by the Oslo University Hospital, included 50 men and 68 women with an average age of 55 who were randomly assigned to eat three kiwis or one apple a day for eight weeks. Participants had blood pressure levels in the mildly elevated range of 128/85 when the study began. A blood pressure reading that is less than 120/80 is considered ideal. They changed nothing in their diet other than adding the fruit. Researchers measured blood pressure via 24-hour ambulatory monitoring, which is thought to be more precise than measuring it during a single point in time.


The researchers concluded:

“Three kiwi a day improved 24-hour blood pressure more than an apple a day.”

Others were more skeptical Dr. Nehal Mehta, a preventive cardiologist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia said:

“There is biological plausibility, but I would not go and grab three kiwis a day … They are not easy to find or one of those fruits that people readily grab.”

The new study may help to do for kiwis what a previous study did for red wine, which is also known to have positive benefits for the heart. Of course all of this information comes with a caution of moderation and balance and Dr. Elliott M. Antman, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, pointed out that while promising, the new study was made with only a small group of people :

“Don’t count on this to be the complete answer to high blood pressure … do not stop taking your blood pressure medications without talking to your doctor.”

Green tea can cut cholesterol

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DRINKING a cup of green tea regularly could have major health benefits, according to research.

It has been found to not only cut levels of “bad” cholesterol, but it leaves “good” cholesterol unchanged.

Experts now say drinking more green tea could have a significant impact on health. Cholesterol is a fatty substance known as a lipid, mostly made by the liver from the high-fat foods we eat. Although vital for the normal functioning of the body, excessive levels of bad LDL – low-density lipoprotein – in the blood can clog arteries and increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

But good HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, carries cholesterol away from the cells and back to the liver, where it is either broken down or passed from the body as waste. Now the researchers say their findings may explain why green tea has already been linked to a lower risk of heart disease.

Xin-Xin Zheng and colleagues from Peking Union Medical College in Beijing wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that the analysis “showed the administration of green tea beverages or extracts resulted in significant reductions in serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol concentrations, but no effect on HDL cholesterol was observed”.

Green tea

Green tea

The researchers analysed the results of 14 random trials in which participants drank green tea or took an extract of green tea for periods ranging from three weeks to three months, or were assigned to a placebo group.

On average, green tea was shown to reduce total cholesterol by 7.2 milligrams per decilitre compared with levels seen in those taking the placebo. LDL cholesterol fell by an average of 2.2 mg/dl, or slightly less than 2 per cent.


The cholesterol-lowering effects of green tea may be due to catechins, which decrease the absorption of cholesterol, the researchers said. But this reduction is fairly small, warned Nathan Wong, who runs the heart disease prevention programme at the University of California. He also said green tea “should not be recommended in place of well-proven cholesterol-lowering medicines”.

There has been concern over possible side-effects from heavy consumption of green tea or green tea extracts following a few dozen reports of liver damage. But Mr Wong said smaller amounts “could be a useful component of a heart-healthy diet”.

Victoria Taylor, a senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This review of previous studies suggests green tea could have a positive effect on reducing our total cholesterol level, as well as the ‘bad’ LDL element. But we need to make sure there are no long-term side-effects on our overall health.”