mangos

Mangos associated with favorable nutrient intake, dietary quality

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Key takeaways:

  • Mango consumers had greater intake of important nutrients and better dietary quality vs. nonconsumers.
  • Eating mangos may reduce the risk for preeclampsia and hypertensive disorders in women of childbearing age.

Older adults and women of childbearing age who consumed mangos had a greater intake of several key nutrients that are recommended for those stages in life, a study found. They also had better diet quality.

Research has previously suggested that the intake of mangos could offer potential health benefits, including a lower risk for CVD.

PC0124Fulgoni_Graphic_01_WEB
Data derived from: Fulgoni K, Fulgoni III V. Nutrients. 2024;doi:10.3390/nu16020303.

However, “less information is available on the benefit of these fruits within the [women of childbearing age (WCA)] and older adult populations,”Kristin Fulgoni, a research analyst at consulting firm Nutrition Impact LLC, and Victor L. Fulgoni III, from the same company, wrote in Nutrients.

They noted that both groups were recommended by the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines For Americans to consume at least 1.5 to 2 cups of fruit per day, whereas mangos possess multiple nutrients “of public health concern.”

The researchers evaluated data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to determine the nutrient and food group intake and diet quality of WCA (n = 16,774) and adults aged 60 years and older (n = 18,784) who consumed mangos vs. nonconsumers.

The mean intake of mangos among consumers was 90.1 g for WCA and 91.3 g for older adults over the periods of 1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2018. Men had a 3.8 g higher intake compared with women.

Fulgoni and Fulgoni III found that, vs. nonconsumers, both WCA and older adults who consumed mangos had a greater than 20% higher intake of fiber and vitamin C, whereas WCA consumers had a 10% higher intake of magnesium, folate and potassium.

The researchers highlighted that the higher intake of fiber and magnesium among WCA suggests that including mangos in a diet could reduce the risk for hypertensive disorders and preeclampsia.

Notably, both subgroups — older adults and WCA who consumed mangos — had lower intakes of beef, poultry and fish, whereas WCA mango consumers had a higher intake of grain and a lower intake of added sugars.

“It is possible that mango consumers are utilizing fruit, and specifically mango, as a source of sweetness in replacement of energy-dense foods with high added sugar content,” Fulgoni and Fulgoni III wrote.

They added that WCA fell more than 25% below the maximum component score for fruit regardless of mango intake, “underlining the need for increased fruit consumption in this population,” the researchers wrote.

Still, the diet quality of WCA and older adult mango consumers was 16% and 13% higher than that of nonconsumers, respectively, based on the Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Eating Index 2020.

“This study suggests incorporating mango into the diet could be beneficial to nutrient intake as well as diet quality in specific life stages of adult Americans,” the researchers concluded. “Identifying individual fruits that help to ward off common health conditions in WCA could give multiple options for this subpopulation who are prone to food aversions.”

Perspective

This study helps show the correlation between reported mango consumption and nutrients of concern for women of childbearing age and older adults, both populations who struggle with getting in enough potassium, folate, magnesium, fiber, calcium vitamin C, etc. all of which can be found in high amounts in mangos. It also showed that those who had a higher mango intake also had a higher intake of other beneficial foods like whole grains and total fruits, and consumed lower levels of saturated fat, sodium, added sugar, beef, etc. which when eating in large amounts can have negative health outcomes.

The findings of this research also were able to show more specific results based on population and nutrients of concern for that respective age group. For women of childbearing age, those who consumed mangos had a higher intake of folate, magnesium, fiber, potassium and vitamin E. When looking at the results of older adults in this study, results suggest that older adult mango consumers are more likely to eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, which is correlated with lower intake of protein, vitamin B12 and a heightened risk for malnutrition. With that said, mango consumers had a higher intake of greens and beans, as well as higher diet quality overall, which correlate with lower levels of CVD, cognitive decline and sarcopenia.

There are some strengths and limitations to this study. A strength is that because of the use of NHANES data, the population studied was large and diverse, allowing these findings to be more generalizable. One main weakness is that this is an observational study, meaning that there may be confounding factors that contribute to the results we see. Socioeconomic status, intake of other beneficial foods/nutrients besides mango and genetics may explain some of the results, and because of this, causality cannot be demonstrated by this study alone.

Because mangos are so high in many nutrients of concern for both older adults and women of childbearing age, the results from this study suggest that incorporating more mangos into the diet could help alleviate nutritional inadequacies like potassium, magnesium, folate, vitamin E, calcium and fiber. Irrespective of mango consumption status, women of childbearing age were more than 25% below the maximum fruit consumption component score, which shows there is a large need to advocate for more fruit consumption for this particular population. Because of this, clinicians should be ready to have conversations with their patients in this age/gender cohort about fruit consumption in the diet and encourage intake, particularly if they are pregnant or looking to become pregnant soon. These findings also suggest it may be beneficial to chat with older adults who eat a vegetarian/vegan diet about protein consumption and nutrients commonly found in high protein foods like vitamin B12, as these nutrients were low.

Studies demonstrate health benefits of mangos, herbs, spices

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Recent data suggest that mangos could help improve certain risk factors for chronic disease in patients who are overweight or obese, according to researchers.

In addition, two other trials exploring how diet affects health revealed an association between herbs and spices and improvements in BP and cholesterol.

Martin Rosas

All three studies were presented during the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, held virtually.

Mangos may lower chronic disease risk

In the first study, Martin Rosas Jr., MS, a research assistant at San Diego State University and a campus food and nutrition intern at the Humane Society, and colleagues examined the potential health benefits of mangos in adults with overweight or obesity.

“Mangos contain many beneficial nutrients and have been shown to have health-promoting properties,” Rosas told Healio Primary Care. “We conducted this study to determine if the addition of fresh mangos as a snack food would modify CVD risk factors compared to another commonly consumed type of snack.”

Rosas and colleagues assigned 27 participants to receive either 100 calories of fresh mangos daily or 100 calories of low-fat cookies daily for 12 weeks. After a 4-week washout period, the participants were then assigned to the other dietary intervention.

Neither intervention significantly changed body weight, body fat percentage, BMI or BP, according to the researchers.

Overall, daily mango consumption did not affect anthropometric measurements or lipid profiles, Rosas said during a presentation. There was a significant increase in aspartate transaminase following mango consumption, but there were no changes in the other liver function enzymes, “suggesting minimal effects on liver health from this study,” Rosas said.

There was also an association between mango consumption and improvements in total antioxidant capacity and C-reactive protein. In addition, Rosas reported “a beneficial effect” of mango consumption on fasting blood glucose, which he said may be due to the mangiferin and fiber in mangos.

Meanwhile, the researchers observed a significant increase in insulin and triglycerides after 12 weeks of low-fat cookie consumption.

“Encouraging fruit and vegetable consumption, especially when replacing refined carbohydrates, can reduce the risk of CVD,” Rosas said in the interview. “Mangos should be considered as a healthy snack choice, containing many nutrients, antioxidants and fiber that may reduce certain CVD risk factors, including reductions in fasting blood glucose.”

Herbs, spices may lower BP

In a separate study, Kristina S. Petersen, PhD, APD, FAHA, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Texas Tech University, and colleagues assessed the cardiometabolic effects of adding mixed herbs and spices to a typical American diet.

The study included 71 adults who were at higher risk for cardiometabolic disease. They were assigned to receive each of the following diets for 4 weeks, with a minimum 2-week washout period in between interventions: a low-spice diet (0.5 g for every 2,100 kcal per day), moderate-spice diet (3.3 g for every 2,100 kcal per day) or high-spice diet (6.6 g for every 2,100 kcal per day). The herbs and spices included in the analysis were cinnamon, coriander, ginger, cumin, parsley, black pepper, garlic, turmeric, onion powder, rosemary, paprika, chili powder, cilantro, oregano, basil, red pepper, thyme, bay leaf, cardamom, sesame seeds, sage, poppy seeds, dillweed and allspice.

There were no significant changes in blood glucose or LDL cholesterol after the interventions, Petersen said during a presentation. However, after the moderate-spice diet, total cholesterol was 6.8 mg per dL lower than baseline.

“It is unclear why the effect occurred with the moderate-spice diet, with no effect present for the high-spice diet,” Petersen said. “The lack of a dose-response effect suggests that the spices given did not reduce lipid absorption via inhibition of digestive enzymes, which was the hypothesized mechanism by which spices would reduce total and LDL cholesterol.”

Compared with the low- and moderate-spice diet, the high-spice diet was associated with a significant reduction in mean 24-hour systolic BP, which declined by about 3 mm Hg from baseline.

The researchers observed similar effects with diastolic BP. The high-spice diet was associated with a 1.8 mm Hg reduction in diastolic BP compared with baseline, “and this was statistically different from both the low and moderate diets,” Petersen said.

“In conclusion, this study shows that the addition of 6.6 g per day of herbs and spices to an average American diet improved 24-hour BP after 4 weeks compared to lower doses of herbs and spices in adults at elevated risk for cardiometabolic diseases,” she said. “Further research is needed to determine whether adding herbs and spices to a healthy dietary pattern would elicit greater cardiometabolic health benefits.”

Melina B. Jampolis

Melina B. Jampolis, MD, a past president of the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists who was not affiliated with the study, said the findings “support the idea of cutting back on salt and replacing it with herbs and spices.”

Cholesterol benefits of spices in type 2 diabetes

For the third study, Sepideh Alasvand, a PhD student in nutrition and food science at Clemson University in South Carolina, and colleagues investigated the impact of certain spices on cholesterol in patients with type 2 diabetes.

The researchers analyzed 28 randomized controlled trials, which included 1,049 control participants and 1,035 participants who received spice supplements in capsule form. The spices included ginger (eight studies), turmeric (three studies), curcumin (three studies), cinnamon (11 studies) and curcuminoids (three studies). The trial durations ranged from 1 to 3 months, Alasvand said during a presentation.

In general, Alasvand reported that all spice supplements appeared to improve lipid profiles in patients with type 2 diabetes.

“Therefore, these spices may be a potential source for modern dyslipidemia treatments in individuals with type 2 diabetes,” she said.

The findings support previous research that shows that spices can help patients manage their blood glucose and improve cholesterol, according to Jampolis.

“The wonderful thing about spices is that they can improve the flavor of foods, too, so it’s a win-win,” she said. “Patients are more likely to stick with recommendations that are easy and tasty!”

References:

Alasvand S, et al. A systematic review of the effectiveness of ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, curcumin, and curcuminoids for dyslipidemia associated with diabetes. Presented at: American Society of Nutrition Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting; June 7-10, 2021 (virtual meeting).

Petersen KS, et al. A culinary dose of herbs and spices improves 24-hour blood pressure in adults at risk for cardiometabolic diseases: A randomized, crossover, controlled-feeding study. Presented at: American Society of Nutrition Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting; June 7-10, 2021 (virtual meeting).

Rosas M, et al. Effects of fresh mango consumption on blood glucose, insulin, and other cardiovascular disease risk factors in overweight and obese adults. Presented at: American Society of Nutrition Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting; June 7-10, 2021 (virtual meeting).