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Berry consumption in relation to allostatic load in US adults: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003-2010
Berries are a great way to get antioxidant polyphenols and other health-promoting elements. Allostatic load (AL) is a term that refers to the total amount of physiological dysregulations caused by chronic stress in the autonomic, cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune systems. Integrated biomarkers can assess a combined or domain score representing the degree of these dysregulations in each system. It was proposed that berries’ anti-inflammatory properties and other benefits reduce AL. Berries were shown to be associated with both AL composite and domain scores in the 2003-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Zhang et al. (2024) used two 24-hour food recalls obtained from US adults in the 2003–2010 NHANES (n = 7684) to quantify berry consumption. After fully correcting for lifestyle, sociodemographic, and dietary variables, the mean AL composite scores for consumers of any berry (11.9), strawberries (11.6), and blueberries (11.6), respectively, were considerably lower than those of nonconsumers (12.3). Greater intake of blueberries, strawberries, and total berries was shown to be associated with lower mean AL composite scores in a dose-response manner. The average ratings for the metabolic and cardiovascular domains were consistently lower in those who consumed blueberries, strawberries, and all berries. Compared to nonconsumers, berry consumers also had substantially lower mean AL autonomic and immunological scores (original sample: n = 15,620). The authors conclude that eating berries might potentially minimize the incidence of stress-related diseases in the adult US population by lowering their AL composite scores. [NPID: Berry consumption, allostatic load, biomarkers, stress, physiological dysregulations, antioxidant, polyphenol, NHANES, adults]
Year: 2024
