---
title: Mealtime ‘Swap’ Helps Researchers Understand Heart Health
date: 2025-05-14T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/mealtime-swap-helps-researchers-understand-heart-health"
section: Articles
---
# Mealtime ‘Swap’ Helps Researchers Understand Heart Health

*May 14, 2025* — by [John Tucker](/author/john-tucker)


> USDA-Funded Experiment With Fatty, Starchy Diet Could Explain Why Some People Don’t Benefit From Natural Antioxidant

*Catetchin Effects Study 05052025 SC 4232 1920x1080 1 — Fernanda Sato, a UMD master’s student in nutrition and food science, prepares breakfast in Marie Mount Hall as part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded study that measures some people’s ability to metabolize an antioxidant called catechin, which has been linked to heart health.*

An alarm bell dinged, and Fernanda Sato dashed to the oven to remove a steaming tray of eggs. The University of Maryland master’s student was preparing breakfast in a campus kitchen for a half-dozen people dropping off samples from previous meals—in a manner of speaking.

Nutrition and food science students with UMD’s College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences are conducting an experiment on 24 participants, anchored by a typical American diet: egg and cheese croissant sandwiches, flour tortillas and crackers, for example. Because the menu largely eschews fruits, fiber and whole grain, it’s not the gold standard of nutrition, and that’s the point.

The meals lack catechins, a natural antioxidant chemical found in certain foods and beverages like apples, fava beans, sweet potatoes, blackberries, dark chocolate, green tea and red wine and thought to support heart health. The researchers want to confirm that premise, but they also suspect that only some eaters reap the biggest nutritional rewards of catechins, and they want to know why.

During a testing period that ended last week, participants hewed to low-catechin diets for three days, but half consumed catechin-rich cranberry-apple juice throughout the period while a control group drank a placebo drink made with sugars and artificial flavors and coloring.

Before and after the regimen, each participant submitted stool and urine samples. In the coming months the UMD team will probe the now-frozen specimens, looking for biomarkers of catechin digestion—a good sign—and compare it to participants’ blood pressure and body composition.

“Some people’s gut bacteria can metabolize the catechins to a greater extent so that they’re absorbed into the bloodstream, as opposed to, forgive me, just pooping it out," explained Associate Professor Margaret Slavin, who is leading the UMD study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.


*plate with eggs, toast and red peppers, with "Beverage A" also on the tray — The three-day controlled diet consists of typical American foods, but half of the participants receive beverages packed with catechins while the other half drinks a placebo made with sugars and artificial flavors and coloring.*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Food](https://today.umd.edu/topic/food), [Nutrition and Food Science](https://today.umd.edu/topic/nutrition-and-food-science), [Research Impact](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research-impact), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Agriculture and Natural Resources](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-agriculture-and-natural-resources)