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Australian researchers recently found that drinking a cup of tea every day may help your heart later in life.
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But if you’re not a tea drinker, other foods containing flavonoids can also provide health benefits as you age.
According to researchers at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, a study of 881 elderly women (median age 80 years) found that those who took high doses of flavonoids had increased calcium deposits in their heart valves. were less likely to accumulate or cause calcification of the abdominal aorta. (AAC).
This condition is both a strong predictor of dementia in later life and can lead to heart attack and stroke later in life.
Dietary changes that include flavonoid-rich fluids and foods can help avoid these health risks in your 60s and 70s.
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Ben Parmenter, a researcher at the ECU Nutrition and Health Innovation Research Institute, said:
“The main contributors are typically black or green tea, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, red wine, apples, raisins/grapes and dark chocolate.”
Permenter, who led the study, found that participants with high intakes of flavonoids (in this case, black tea) were nearly 40% less likely to have widespread AAC.
He added that even non-tea drinkers may benefit from adding flavonoids to their diet.
“In women who do not drink tea, higher total non-tea flavonoid intake appears to prevent extensive arterial calcification.
“This means that flavonoids from sources other than black tea may protect against AAC when not drinking black tea.”