High diversity of dietary flavonoid intake is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and major chronic diseases

Consuming a wide variety of flavonoid-rich plant foods—such as tea, berries, apples, and dark chocolate—may help reduce the risk of serious diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and brain disorders. This is according to a new large-scale study.

Prof. Aedín Cassidy, director of the Co-Centre, is one of the lead authors of the study. The study was conducted by researchers from Queen’s University Belfast, Edith Cowan University in Perth, and the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna.  The team followed more than 120,000 adults aged between 40 and 70 for more than 10 years to see how flavonoid intake affected their health over time.

The study was published in the journal Nature Food.

Higher habitual intakes of dietary flavonoids have been linked with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and major chronic disease. Yet, the contribution of diversity of flavonoid intake to health outcomes remains to be investigated. Here, using a cohort of 124,805 UK Biobank participants, we show that participants who consumed the widest diversity of dietary flavonoids, flavonoid-rich foods and/or specific flavonoid subclasses had a 6–20% significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality and incidence of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, respiratory disease and neurodegenerative disease. Furthermore, we report that both quantity and diversity of flavonoids are independent predictors of mortality and several chronic diseases, suggesting that consuming a higher quantity and wider diversity is better for longer-term health than either component alone. These findings suggest that consuming several different daily servings of flavonoid-rich foods or beverages, such as tea, berries, apples, oranges or grapes, may lower risk of all-cause mortality and chronic disease.

Read the full paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-025-01176-1