Food‐based anthocyanin intake and cognitive outcomes in human intervention trials: a systematic review

Abstract

The impact of food-based anthocyanin consumption on both acute and long-term cognition appears promising. However, adequately powered studies that include sensitive cognitive tasks are needed to confirm these findings and allow the translation of research into dietary messages.

A Review of Factors Affecting Anthocyanin Bioavailability: Possible Implications for the Inter-Individual Variability

“…Anthocyanins receive attention and are studied both because of their impact on food sensory properties, being responsible for the red-blue color of berries, fruits, and certain vegetables-based products, and because of their health-promoting properties [1][2][3][4][5].…”

“…Especially important is their role in preventing cardiovascular health disease through modulation of risk factors such as blood pressure, platelet aggregation, and vascular function [1,5,6]. Furthermore, the intake of anthocyanins seems to have promising effect on cognitive function in humans, with both acute and long-term intakes [4]. Besides, no negative effect of anthocyanin derivatives has been reported, even after ingestion of very high doses [7].…”

Anthocyanin-rich plum juice reduces ambulatory blood pressure but not acute cognitive function in younger and older adults: a pilot crossover dose-timing study

“…The body of evidence on the protective effects of flavonoid-rich foods against CVD is based mainly on epidemiological studies, thus evidence remains inconclusive and acute effects have not been well defined. Systematic reviews of available experimental studies [23,24] have highlighted an absence of knowledge regarding a 'threshold dose' or appropriate 'dose-timing' required to induce physiological protective effects. This is because the impact of anthocyanin dose has not been studied extensively in humans and different experiments have used varied preparations e.g.…”

Polyphenols: A concise overview on the chemistry, occurrence, and human health

“…A recent systematic review, which included acute trials ( n = 4) and longer term ( n = 3) interventions that assessed multiple cognitive outcomes in subjects with cognitive impairment found improvements in six of seven studies retrieved after anthocyanin‐rich food consumption. Improvements of the cognitive outcomes included verbal learning and memory after anthocyanin‐rich food consumption (Kent, Charlton, Netzel, & Fanning, ).…”