Abstract
Many studies have indicated that consumption of vegetables and fruits are positively related to lower incidence of several chronic noncommunicable diseases. Although composition of fruit and vegetable juices is different from that of the edible portion of fruits and vegetables, they contain polyphenols and vitamins from fruits and vegetables. Drinking vegetable and fruit juices is very popular in many countries, and also an efficient way to improve consumption of fruits and vegetables. The studies showed that fruit and vegetable juices affect cardiovascular risk factors, such as lowering blood pressure and improving blood lipid profiles. The main mechanisms of action included antioxidant effects, improvement of the aspects of the cardiovascular system, inhibition of platelet aggregation, anti-inflammatory effects, and prevention of hyperhomocysteinemia. Drinking juices might be a potential way to improve cardiovascular health, especially mixtures of juices because they contain a variety of polyphenols, vitamins, and minerals from different fruits and vegetables. This review summarizes recent studies on the effects of fruit and vegetable juices on indicators of cardiovascular disease, and special attention is paid to the mechanisms of action.
Highlights
Many studies have shown that some natural products possess high antioxidant activities, such as vegetables, fruits, cereals, mushrooms, microalgae, wild flowers, and medicinal plants [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11], which could be employed to prevent or treat several chronic noncommunicable diseases caused by oxidative stress [12,13,14,15,16]
Sci. 2017, 18, 555 components in fruit juice to cause a decrease in blood pressure, while nitrate and minerals play an important role in the anti-hypertensive effect of vegetable juice
The results showed that total cholesterol (TC), apo B, low-density lipoprotein–cholesterol (LDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein / high-density lipoprotein (LDL/HDL) ratio were all significantly lowered by consuming orange juice, while the serum levels of homocysteine, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and apo A-1 were not affected [64]
Summary
Many studies have shown that some natural products possess high antioxidant activities, such as vegetables, fruits, cereals, mushrooms, microalgae, wild flowers, and medicinal plants [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11], which could be employed to prevent or treat several chronic noncommunicable diseases caused by oxidative stress [12,13,14,15,16]. Epidemiological studies revealed that consuming fruits and vegetables were negatively associated with chronic noncommunicable diseases. Several studies reported healthy dietary patterns containing adequate fruits and vegetables show good results with respect to blood pressure control [27,28,29], and some studies found that there was a positive association between consuming fruits and vegetables and blood lipids control [30,31,32,33,34]. The consumption of vegetable juice was confirmed to help reach the daily dietary vegetable intake recommendations consistent with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet [34], and drinking fruit juice was an effective way of supplementing fruits. This paper summarizes current knowledge and recent studies on the effects of fruit and vegetable juices on the cardiovascular system. Special attention is paid to the effects on blood pressure and lipids, and the mechanisms of action have been discussed
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