Flavonoids can increase your Healthspan

In this Article (Index)

• Flavonoid-Rich Diet improves health in older adults
• Aging and its Unhealthy Outcomes
• Healthspan
• Women: health and flavonoids
• Men: health and flavonoids
• What are Flavonoids?
• Classifications of Flavonoids
• Flavones
• Flavonols
• Flavanones
• Isoflavonoids
• Flavanols or catechins
• Anthocyanins
• Chalcones

Healthspan is quality of life as we age, enjoying our old age, not lasting or surviving, but living and enjoying life. Emerson once wrote:

It is not length of life but depth of life. It is not duration... Ralph Waldo Emerson

The same concept had been stated by Socrates 2,200 years earlier: "The really important thing is not to live, but to live well."
Of course, both Emerson and Socrates referred to morality and virtue, but the same can be said about life quality, enjoying life, being mobile, mentally sound, and vigorous. Living a long and healthy life. Lifespan and healthspan.

Flavonoid-Rich Diet improves health in older adults

A study published on February 15, 2025 (3) reported the effects of eating flavonoid-rich food and the health improvements it caused in a group of over 86,000 men and women, 60 years or older. It found positive health outcomes: "High intakes of flavonoid-rich foods may support healthy aging."

It analyzed the data from 62,743 women of the Nurses' Health Study or NHS (1990-2014), and 23,687 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study or HPFS (2006–2018) and evaluated the effect of a high flavonoid intake on signs of unhealthy aging like frailty, poor mental health, and impaired physical function.

Key Findings

• The NHS women with the highest intake of flavonoids had a 15% lower risk of frailty, and a 12% lower risk of impaired physical function, and 12% lower risk of poor mental health than the women with the lowest flavonoid intake.
• A higher intake of flavonoids, and of tea, red wine, apples, blueberries, and oranges lowered the risk of unhealthy old-age outcomes.
• For the HPFS men, "fewer associations were observed (between high intake and lowered health risks) those with the highest flavodiet scores had a lower risk of poor mental health."

Aging and its Unhealthy Outcomes

Declining health and life quality

The paper mentions that aging leads to a decline in mental and physical abilities, and a higher vulnerability to illness, disease, and death rate than younger people.

Life expectancy has grown over the past 125 years from 32 years in 1900 to 46.5 in 1950 and 71.7 in 2022. It is expected to continue increasing to 77.3 by 2050. (3),(4)

Healthspan

Yet, despite this formidable growth in life expectancy, the years lived in good health at the end of this lifespan, known as healthspan has not increased.

Identifying factors that can help improve the health and quality of life in older people is crucial to improving the healthspan. Several studies have shown that Plant-based diets, balanced nutrition, and physical activity can improve healthy aging.

In this context, the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of flavonoids can help lessen physical decline. Furthermore, the neuroprotective effects of flavonoids can also help delay the onset of mental and cognitive deterioration.

This study focused on the possible synergistic effect of consuming different sources of flavonoids, where the combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects. To do this, the authors created a flavodiet score based on the foods eaten and used it together with data on individual flavonoid-rich foods and beverages.

Flavonoids and aging health decline

Women: health and flavonoids

The Nurses's Health Study (NHS) which used women, showed the following associations between a flavodiet score and physical health and frailty:

• Decreasing the intake of 1 serving per day of flavodiet score increased the risk of frailty by 18% and by 7% for impaired physical function (difficulties in mobility, postural instability, stamina, tremors, or joint stiffness) compared to those who maintained their flavodiet scores.
• Increasing intake by 3 servings per day lowered frailty risk by 11%, reduced the impaired physical function risk by 7%, and the risk of poor mental health by 8%.

Regarding individual foods and beverages, the NHS showed that increasing intakes improved health outcomes.

• A 1/2 serving increase in red wind, apples, oranges, or orange juice lowered the risks as follows: 6-9% for frailty, and 5-6% for impaired physical functioning.
• Adding 1/2 serving of blueberries reduced the risk of frailty by 12%, while an additional 1/2 serving of strawberries lowered the risk of poor mental health by 12%.
• "The greatest increases in intakes of red wine were associated with a 17% and 8% lower risk of frailty and impaired physical function, respectively." (3)

Reducing the intake of these flavonoid-rich foods had a negative health impact.

• Reducing tea intake raised the risk of frailty by 7%.
• Decreases in intakes of blueberries and apples were linked to a 31% and 16% higher risk of developing frailty, respectively.

Other previous studies using NHS data also found that women "with the highest intakes of flavonols, flavones, and flavanones had a 7–10% lower risk of depression compared to those with the lowest intakes."

Men: health and flavonoids

The HPFS study data revealed unexpectedly that there were fewer positive health associations between men and a flavonoid-rich diet.

• Moderate intake of total flavonoids reduced the risk of impaired physical function by 12%.
• The highest flavodiet score reduced the risk of poor mental health in men by 18%.
• The risk reduction for poor mental health in men was the following: 14% for the highest intake of blueberries, 15% for the highest intake of tea, and 29% for a moderate intake of red wine. No effect on frailty or physical impairment was observed.
• Decreasing the intake of 1 serving per day of flavodiet score increased the risk of poor mental health by 60% compared to those who maintained their flavodiet scores.
• Increasing intake by 3 servings per day lowered the poor mental health risk by 15%.
• Adding one serving of tea per day reduced the poor mental health risk by 8%.

What are Flavonoids?

Flavonoids have a polyphenolic chemical structure and are used by plants for several purposes: they provide pigments to color flowers and fruits, and aroma. They protect plants from the attack of insects, they form filters against the sun's ultraviolet light; they are antimicrobials and detoxifying agents. They also protect them from the attack of microbes and insects. (2)

Polyphenols are six-sided rings made of carbon atoms with more than one alcohol or hydroxyl group (OH—), hence their name "poly". They form compounds with three of these rings (in the case of Chalcones, two rings), which differ in the position of the hydroxyl group, and the number of them. Some have cetones (O⚌).

They are found in fruits, vegetables, grains, bark, roots, flowers, and stems, as well as in certain beverages prepared with them like tea, cocoa, and wine.

Flavonoids have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic, and anti-carcinogenic properties. They also inhibit certain enzymes like xanthine oxidase (XO), cyclo-oxygenase (COX), lipoxygenase, and phosphoinositide 3-kinase which appear to help prevent neurodegenerative diseases. (2)

Classifications of Flavonoids

Flavonoids are comprised of different subgroups, which we describe below: (2)

• Flavones
• Flavonols
• Flavanones
• Isoflavonoids
• Flavanols or catechins
• Anthocyanins
• Chalcones

Flavones

Flavones are found in leaves, flowers, and fruits, major sources include celery, parsley, red peppers, chamomile, and mint. They comprise compounds like luteolin, apigenin, and tangeritin.

Flavonols

Flavonols are flavonoids with a ketone group. They are potent antioxidants and are found in fruits and vegetables such as onions, kale, tomatoes, lettuce, grapes, berries, and apples; as well as tea and red wine.

Flavanones

They are found in all citrus fruits (lemons, grapefruit, and lemons) as well as grapes. They give citrus peel and rind their bitter zest. Important flavanones include hesperitin, naringenin, and eriodictyol. They have potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Isoflavonoids

Mostly found in legumes like soybeans and in some microbes. The best-known ones are genistein and daidzein which have an oestrogenic activity and are considered phyto-oestrogens and can induce hormonal changes.

Flavanols or catechins

Flavanols are abundant in fruits like blueberries, bananas, apples, pears, and peaches and pears.

Anthocyanins

Anthocyanins are pigments used by plants to color fruits and flowers. They are found in cranberries, black currants, red grapes, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, bilberries, and blackberries. The most studied anthocyanins are cyanidin, delphinidin, malvidin, pelargonidin, and peonidin.

Chalcones

Found in tomatoes, strawberries, bearberries, and pears. The most common ones are phloridzin, arbutin, phloretin, and chalconaringenin.

Closing Comments

More science-based evidence is accumulating and shows us that a healthy, balanced, plant-based diet coupled with physical activity can help us live longer and healthier lives, extending our healthspan.