Your Diet Could Be Missing the Key Ingredient for Heart Protection

New research indicates that when it comes to heart health, the types of fruits and vegetables consumed may be just as important as the amount.

Most healthy eating advice focuses on quantity: eat more fruits and vegetables, aim for five servings a day, and your heart will benefit. But new research suggests that when it comes to cardiovascular health, which fruits and vegetables you choose may be just as important as how many you eat.

Researchers from the University of Reading, Harvard Medical School, the University of California, Davis, and Mars, Inc. found that most people are not consuming enough flavanols, naturally occurring plant compounds linked to better heart health and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Surprisingly, this gap remained even among many people who regularly met recommended fruit and vegetable intake targets.

The study, published in Food and Function, analyzed biomarker data and dietary information from more than 30,000 people in the United Kingdom and the United States. Rather than relying solely on food questionnaires, researchers measured biomarkers that can provide a more objective picture of flavanol intake.

According to the findings, fewer than one in five participants consumed enough flavanols to reach levels previously associated with meaningful cardiovascular benefits.

Dr. Javier Ottaviani, the paper’s lead author, said: “Flavanols can significantly reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, but only if you consume enough of them. Most people assume that eating plenty of fruit and vegetables covers this, but what this research shows is that the specific choices you make matter far more than the total amount. Including a handful of blackberries, a whole apple or having a cup of green tea alongside your meal could make a real difference to how much of these beneficial compounds you actually consume and absorb from the diet.” 

Earlier research, including the COSMOS study, the largest clinical trial of flavanols to date, found that consuming 500 mg of flavanols per day significantly lowered the risk of death from heart disease. The new findings suggest that most people do not come close to reaching that amount, even when following general healthy eating recommendations such as the NHS Eatwell Guide.

Among the foods with the highest flavanol levels per serving are:

Plums (500 g (17.6 oz), roughly one punnet): approximately 450 mg of flavanols

Cranberries (250 g (8.8 oz), roughly one punnet): approximately 300 mg of flavanols

Blackberries (200 g (7.1 oz), roughly one punnet): approximately 250 mg of flavanols

Green tea (one 250 ml cup (8.5 fl oz)): approximately 200 mg of flavanols

Broad beans/fava beans (80 g (2.8 oz), a small handful): approximately 140 mg of flavanols

Cherries (400 g (14.1 oz), roughly one punnet): approximately 130 mg of flavanols

Apples with skin (200 g (7.1 oz), one medium apple): approximately 110 mg of flavanols

Strawberries (200 g (7.1 oz), roughly one punnet): approximately 90 mg of flavanols

Blueberries (150 g (5.3 oz), roughly one punnet): approximately 80 mg of flavanols

Pinto beans (40 g (1.4 oz), two tablespoons dry): approximately 70 mg of flavanols

The results suggest that dietary guidance may become more effective by focusing not only on the amount of fruits and vegetables people eat, but also on the specific foods they choose.

Professor Gunter Kuhnle of the University of Reading said: “Five-a-day is the right message, but we may need to think more carefully about which five. Different fruits and vegetables offer very different nutritional benefits beyond vitamins and minerals, and as our understanding of these compounds grows, there is a real opportunity to make dietary guidance more specific and more effective. This research is a step towards understanding what that might look like in practice.”

Reference: “Adhering to dietary guidelines does not yield flavanol intake levels associated with beneficial cardiovascular effects” by Javier I. Ottaviani, John W. Erdman, Francene M. Steinberg, JoAnn E. Manson, Howard D. Sesso, Hagen Schroeter and Gunter G. C. Kuhnle, 8 June 2026, Food & Function.
DOI: 10.1039/D6FO00867D

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.

When You Eat Might Matter More Than Sleep – Especially for Your Heart

A Health Paradigm Shift: Prescription for Free Fruits and Vegetables Linked to Better Heart Health

AHA Rates 10 Popular Diets: What’s Best for Heart-Healthy Eating – And What Misses the Mark

Hold the Salt: Surprising Findings on Low-Salt Diets, Heart Failure, and Quality of Life

Genetic Risk of Heart Disease May Be Due to Low Omega 3-Linked Biomarker Found in Fish Oils

Researchers Urge You to Avoid Processed Meats – Linked to Higher Risk of Mortality and Major Cardiovascular Disease

Popular Energy Drinks’ Harmful Effects on Heart Revealed in New Research

Authoritative New Analysis Links Omega-3 Supplements to Cardioprotection and Improved Heart Health

Chocolate Is Good for the Heart – “Chocolate Helps Keep the Heart’s Blood Vessels Healthy”

Dr. Peter Nocella on June 17, 2026 1:36 pm Yikes! 18 oz plums, 9 oz cranberries, 14 oz cherries, etc. are NOT STANDARD dietary servings!

These recommendations seem somewhat crazy-most normal people would never eat the suggested amounts! Kindly ask U of Reading to post more “normal” serving recommendations to get one’s daily flavonoids?

Jennifer on June 18, 2026 2:13 am Good catch. No one eats a pound+ of plums at one sitting.

Can you imagine the effects on the digestive tract that would cause? I’m hoping the information was presented simply to show the amounts of flavanols in an amount of food, rather than to suggest that you eat that quantity of food.

But what a dumb way to present the information. They are all different quantities so you can’t even use that info to compare the foods to each other for flavanol content.

From what I just searched, a standard serving of plums is 5.8 oz. or about 2 plums so they should have just told us how much flavanol is in a serving. Or per plum. (and what the heck is a punnet?) Never mind.

Dori on June 20, 2026 12:09 am

My thoughts exactly

Reply

Gill on June 19, 2026 6:17 am fyi: a punnet is commonly used in British groceries and markets as a container for soft fruits such as strawberries, cherries etc. It is, I believe, about 250 g.

For a British reader this would be a very easy amount to visualize on a market stall or supermarket rack – so not a dumb way to present the information. Maybe the SciTechDaily editors should reognise this when including press reports etc from countries other than the US.

Dan on June 20, 2026 4:00 pm

Today I learned a new word: punnet.

Reply

Had to go look up punnet.

Yeah, great. A science article using a unit of measurement that HAS NO FIXED SIZE. Morons. No wonder the US is falling behind the rest of the world.

I grew up in the southern United States raising, picking and selling strawberries as a major cash crops. The term for the containers the berries were placed in was “pints”. While picking, multiple pints were placed in a “carrier”. Once the carrier was full, the strawberries where sorted and packed into pints that were placed into “flats” to be taken to market and sold. Never once in the past 70 years have I heard the term punnet used.