4-Week consumption of anthocyanin-rich blood orange juice does not affect LDL-cholesterol or other biomarkers of CVD risk and glycaemia compared with standard orange juice: a randomised controlled trial.

Br J Nutr. 2018 Feb;119(4):415-421. doi: 10.1017/S0007114517003865. Hollands WJ1, Armah CN1, Doleman JF1, Perez-Moral N1, Winterbone MS1, Kroon PA1. Author information 1 Quadram Institute Bioscience,Norwich Research Park,Norwich NR4 7UA,UK. Abstract Elevated circulating cholesterol levels are a risk factor for CVD which is also associated with sub-optimal vascular function. There is emerging evidence that anthocyanins can cause beneficial cardio-protective effects by favourably modulating lipoprotein profiles. We compared the effects of blood orange juice which is rich in anthocyanins and blonde orange juice without anthocyanins on LDL-cholesterol and other biomarkers of CVD risk, vascular function and glycaemia. In all, forty-one participants (aged 25-84 years) with a waist circumference >94 cm (men) and >80 cm (women) completed a randomised, open label, two-arm cross-over trial. For 28 d participants ingested (i) 500 ml blood orange juice providing 50 mg anthocyanins/d and (ii) 500 ml blonde orange juice without anthocyanins. There was a minimum 3-week washout period between treatments. LDL-cholesterol and other biomarkers associated with CVD risk and glycaemia were assessed at the start and end of each treatment period. No significant differences were observed in total, HDL- and LDL-cholesterol, TAG, glucose, fructosamine, nitric oxide, C-reactive protein, aortic systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure or carotid-femoral and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity after 28 d ingestion of blood orange juice compared with standard orange juice. The lack of effect on LDL-cholesterol may be due to the modest concentration of anthocyanins in the blood orange juice. KEYWORDS: HbA1C glycated Hb; NO nitric oxide; cf_PWV carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity; CVD risk; Flavonoids; Human intervention studies; Lipids; Polyphenols PMID: 29498348 DOI: 10.1017/S0007114517003865