Choose These Fruits & Vegetables For Better Heart Health
Eating your fruits and vegetables is one of the most consistent pieces of nutrition advice out there, and for good reason. Produce is packed with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and a wide range of beneficial plant compounds.
But a new study suggests that following current dietary guidelines, including hitting the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables, doesn't guarantee you're getting enough of one specific group of plant compounds linked to heart health: flavanols.
Which foods you choose turns out to matter just as much as how many servings you eat.
What are flavanols?
Flavanols are naturally occurring plant compounds found in foods like tea, cocoa, apples, and berries.
They're not essential nutrients the way vitamins and minerals are, but research suggests they play a meaningful role in heart and brain health. They work by helping your blood vessels function better, reducing inflammation, and protecting your cells from oxidative damage.
The most well-studied flavanols include catechins and epicatechin, the latter being a key compound in cocoa and a focus of much of the heart health research to date.
About the study
Researchers wanted to answer a specific question: does following standard dietary guidelines actually get you to the flavanol intake levels linked to heart health benefits in clinical research?
To find out, they drew on two large groups of participants, one US-based (COSMOS) and one UK-based (EPIC-Norfolk), totaling more than 30,000 adults.
Rather than relying on food diaries or self-reported eating habits, they used two validated biological markers to objectively measure how much flavanol participants were actually consuming.
This approach is more reliable than asking people to recall what they ate. However, the study authors flagged a key limitation was the thresholds used to classify "high" flavanol intake were deliberately set to overestimate compliance.
The findings represent a best-case scenario; the real proportion of people falling short is likely even higher.
Fewer than 1 in 4 healthy eaters got enough flavanols
In the US cohort (COSMOS), people with better overall diet quality did tend to consume slightly more flavanols, but the difference was modest, and meeting the guidelines still wasn't enough to get most people there.
Fewer than 25% of participants who met dietary guidelines for fruit and vegetable intake reached an estimated flavanol intake of 500 mg per day.
The UK cohort (EPIC-Norfolk) told a different story. There, adhering to a higher fruit and vegetable intake was actually associated with lower odds of meeting the flavanol threshold.
Participants with the best adherence to UK dietary guidelines were the least likely to reach 500 mg per day, suggesting that eating more produce, if it's not the right produce, doesn't move the needle on flavanols.
The researchers concluded that specific dietary targets for flavanols may be needed if the goal is to meaningfully increase how much people consume.
What the 500 mg figure actually means
Before treating 500 mg/day as a personal target, it's worth understanding where that number comes from.
The figure comes from the COSMOS trial, a large clinical study involving more than 21,000 older adults.
Participants given a cocoa extract supplement containing 500 mg of cocoa flavanols per day saw a 27% reduction in cardiovascular-related deaths compared to the placebo group. But that outcome came from a standardized cocoa extract supplement, not from participants' everyday diets.
Another subtlety is that the paper treats flavanols broadly as one category, but the COSMOS trial specifically tested cocoa-derived flavanols. An apple, a cup of tea, and a cocoa extract capsule all contain flavanols, but they aren't necessarily interchangeable in the body.
And, two of the study's authors are employed by Mars, Incorporated, a company with commercial interests in flavanol research, and the COSMOS trial received funding from a Mars subsidiary.
The study was published in a peer-reviewed journal and the findings are consistent across two independent cohorts, so the results do hold weight, but the funding context is worth keeping in mind.
Why your produce servings don't tell the whole story
Not all fruits and vegetables are equal when it comes to flavanol content, and the gap between the richest and lowest sources is significant.
A cup of green or black tea delivers a solid dose of catechins. A handful of blueberries contributes flavanols alongside other beneficial pigments. An apple provides epicatechin and quercetin.
A serving of iceberg lettuce, on the other hand, contributes very little of any of these. Two people can both hit five servings a day and end up with very different flavanol intakes depending on which foods they're actually choosing.
The best food sources of flavanols
If you want to shift your diet toward higher flavanol intake, some of the richest sources are foods many people already enjoy:
- Tea: Green and black tea are among the most concentrated sources of catechins and other flavanols. Tea has also been shown to support heart health in people with existing heart disease.
- Apples: A reliable source of epicatechin and quercetin. The skin contains the highest concentration, so eating them whole makes a difference.
- Berries: Blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries are rich in flavanols alongside other beneficial pigments. Darker-colored berries tend to deliver more.
- Cocoa: Unsweetened cocoa powder and cocoa extract are among the most concentrated flavanol sources available. Dark chocolate can also contribute, but processing methods vary and can significantly reduce flavanol content.
- Legumes: Certain beans, particularly pinto, kidney, and fava beans, contain meaningful amounts of flavanols and are easy to work into everyday meals.
A varied diet remains the foundation of good health. But within that variety, leaning toward flavanol-rich choices is a practical, evidence-informed way to get more from the food you're already eating.
The takeaway
Fewer than 1 in 4 people meeting standard dietary guidelines consumed enough flavanols to reach the intake level linked to cardiovascular benefits in clinical research, and in the UK cohort, eating more produce was actually associated with lower flavanol intake.
The gap isn't about eating more produce; it's about which produce you choose. Prioritizing flavanol-rich foods like apples, berries, cocoa, and tea is a practical, evidence-informed way to close that gap, even if the science on optimal intake is still evolving.