If you love drinking tea or coffee, or enjoy snacking on berries and nuts, here’s some great news—these foods may help protect your heart as you get older.
A new study from King’s College London found that people who regularly eat and drink foods rich in natural plant compounds called polyphenols have better long-term heart health.
Polyphenols are found in many foods, especially those that come from plants. They are in tea, coffee, cocoa, berries, olive oil, nuts, and whole grains. Scientists have known for a while that polyphenols may be good for your brain, gut, and heart. But this new study gives even stronger proof that these natural compounds really can make a difference.
The study followed more than 3,100 adults in the UK for over ten years. These participants were part of a long-term research group called TwinsUK. The scientists looked at their diets, especially how much polyphenol-rich food they were eating.
They also measured their blood pressure, cholesterol, and other markers of heart health. What they found was clear: people who ate more polyphenol-rich foods had healthier hearts.
One new part of this study was that the researchers didn’t just look at what people said they ate. They also checked their urine for special substances, called metabolites, that show up when the body breaks down polyphenols.
People who had more of these metabolites in their urine had better cholesterol levels—especially higher HDL cholesterol, which is known as the “good” kind. They also had lower scores on a test that predicts the risk of getting heart disease.
To keep track of how much polyphenol-rich food people were eating, the team created a new score called the Polyphenol Dietary Score, or PPS. This score looked at how often people ate 20 key foods, like tea, coffee, nuts, berries, olive oil, and whole grains.
The score turned out to be a strong signal of heart health, even better than just counting how many polyphenols a person ate overall. This shows that the pattern of eating many different polyphenol-rich foods is important.
Professor Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, one of the researchers, said that sticking to this kind of diet over time can help slow down the rise in heart disease risk that comes with aging. Even small changes—like eating a few more berries or switching to whole grains—can help protect your heart in the long run.
Dr. Yong Li, the lead author, added that this is a simple and practical way to take care of your heart. Since these foods are easy to find and part of everyday diets, most people can try this approach without needing special supplements or big lifestyle changes.
The study also found that even though heart disease risk naturally gets higher with age, those who ate more polyphenol-rich foods saw a much slower increase in their risk over the 11-year period.
In short, this study gives strong evidence that a diet filled with foods like berries, tea, coffee, nuts, olive oil, and whole grains can help keep your heart healthier as you age. Future studies will help confirm these results, but this is a great starting point for anyone wanting to make simple, lasting changes to improve their heart health.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies that herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm, and how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk.
For more health information, please see recent studies that apple juice could benefit your heart health, and results showing yogurt may help lower the death risks in heart disease.
The study is published in BMC Medicine.
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