Chronic consumption of cranberry or cherry juice might considerably improve blood pressure levels.
The review involved a comprehensive search across several databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and psycARTICLES from the beginning until January 2020. The search results included forty-five randomized controlled trials that lasted at least a week, assessing the effects of berries, citrus, and cherries on different cardiovascular disease risk indicators. These indicators were endothelial function, blood pressure, lipid status, and inflammatory biomarkers. Different preparations of berries including juice of barberry, cranberry, grape, pomegranate, blueberry powder, grape, raspberry and freeze-dried strawberry were studied.
The resulting reports showed improvements in endothelial function, inflammation markers, lipid status, and blood pressure. Among the interventions, cranberry juice and cherry juice were notably associated with a potential decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Consumption of berries led to a significant increase in the levels of sVCAM-1, a protein that is usually found higher in people with cardiovascular risk. However, no significant improvements were observed for other specified fruits in this research.
