Fruit juice and heart health
Fruit juice and heart health
2 min read
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), such as coronary heart disease or stroke, are the leading cause of death globally. In Europe, 10000 people die every day from CVD [1]. There are many known risk factors that increase the risk of developing CVD, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Observational and clinical studies looking at the consumption of 100% fruit juice and the risks of heart disease and risk factors have been carried out.
One prospective cohort study [2] modelled the likely effects of substituting fruit juice for sweetened drinks on disease risk factors. The researchers found that drinking fruit juice instead of sugar-sweetened beverages was associated with a 15% lower risk of coronary heart disease or stroke. When fruit juice replaced a serving of fruit, the risk of heart disease and stroke didn’t change suggesting that these contained similar beneficial compounds (unsurprising since fruit juice is made only of fruit).
A systematic review of observational studies found that 100% fruit juice, along with other types of fruit and vegetables such as alliums and citrus fruit, showed greater associations with cardiovascular benefits [3]. For example, between the highest and lowest consumers of fruit juice there was an 18% reduction in stroke incidence and 33% reduction in stroke mortality. In several countries, one daily serving of fruit juice can be part of a healthy, balanced diet.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses pool the results from randomised controlled trials to give an overall picture of the data. One of these looked at different types of fruit juice [4] finding that cranberry juice and cherry juice significantly reduced blood pressure.
A second systematic review and meta-analysis found that drinking cranberry juice increased ‘good’ HDL cholesterol and reduced systolic blood pressure was found [5].
A third systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials in adults found that adding both fruit and 100% fruit juice to the diet significantly decreased blood pressure [6].
Looking at citrus juices specifically, a systematic review of randomised controlled trials found that orange juice significantly lowered total cholesterol levels compared with the control group [7]. A systematic review of studies using grapefruit juice also found that regular consumption significantly reduced systolic blood pressure [8].
Other systematic reviews have found beneficial effects for drinking orange juice on blood pressure and HDL cholesterol in people with overweight or obesity [9], as well as potential beneficial effects on ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol levels [10].
To conclude, observational studies and meta-analyses suggest that drinking a small glass of fruit juice regularly does not increase the risk of heart disease and, indeed, could lower the risk. This is particularly when fruit juice replaces sugar-sweetened drinks such as sweetened fruit drinks and fizzy drinks.
References
Scheffers FR et al. (2021) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33641692/
Zurbau A et al. (2020) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33000670/
Wang Y et al. (2021) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32535781/
Pourmasoumi M et al. (2020) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31023488/
Liu Q et al. (2023) https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264802
Mottallaei M et al. (2021) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34060162/
Onakpoya I et al. (2017) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25880021/
Li L et al. (2022) https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/fo/d2fo02195a
Amini M et al. (2023) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37008412/