ffects of blueberry consumption on cardiovascular health in healthy adults: a cross-over randomised controlled trial

Blueberries are rich in polyphenols and their effect on cardiovascular health including risk factors for endothelial dysfunction and hypertension have been investigated in interventional studies. However, the difference between blueberry treatments in varied forms for their cardiovascular-protective effect remains poorly understood. The current study assessed the effects of whole blueberry and freeze-dried blueberry powder and compared to a control on cardiovascular health in young adults. A crossover randomised controlled trial (RCT) was implemented with 1 week of treatment arm from 3 treatment groups, each followed by 1 week of wash out period. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse wave velocity (PWV), plasma cholesterol (Low-Density Lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), High-Density Lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), total cholesterol) and triglycerides levels (TAG), glucose and nitrite (NO2-) concentrations were compared following fresh blueberry, freeze-dried blueberry powder and control treatments. Thirty-seven participants with mean age of 25.86 ± 6.81 completed the study. No significant difference was observed among fresh blueberry, blueberry powder and the control arm. Plasma NO2- levels were improved 68.66% and 4.34% separately following whole blueberry and blueberry powder supplementations compared to the baseline whereas the control supplementation reported a decrease (-9.10%), although not statistically significant. There were no other effects shown for SBP, DBP, total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, TAG, or glucose. No difference was shown between whole blueberry and freeze-dried blueberry powder consumption for improving cardiovascular health.