Q&A with Dr. Fogarty: Eating for optimal health in 2020

Dr. Fogarty, a nutrition and exercise expert from the UK, talks to Spinaca on the science behind how eating a vegetable-heavy rainbow diet can help you live a longer, healthier life.

Mark Fogarty earned a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry at the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom where he has been researching, publishing and lecturing on natural nutritional intervention in the context of exercise stress for over a decade.

Spinaca farms: What should we all get more of in our diets for 2020 based on your research?

Dr. Fogarty: Most of the research I’ve been engaged with this year (although not quite published yet so spoiler alert!) has focused on watercress as a whole food and the group of compounds it contains called phenolics. 

Phenolics are a pretty abundant compound found a whole host of fruit and vegetables and are often associated with positive changes in blood flow, blood pressure and regulation of endothelium function. The endothelium is a group of cells that line or arteries and help them to flex and contract in relation to changes in blood flow.  

Spinaca Farms: Why is how our bodies react to blood flow a big deal?

Dr. Fogarty: The more flexible the endothelium, the better we’re able to react to changes in blood flow and demand for oxygen. Flexibility also protects cells from getting injured when blood flow is at a higher rate. This is important because injury to the cells is often associated with cardiovascular disease.  Our arteries and the endothelium “stiffen” with age naturally, but a poor diet contributes to this stiffness as well.  

Spinaca Farms: I’d never heard of the endothelium before today—but now I want to keep it happy! How?

Dr. Fogarty: Certain foods help promote the capacity that the endothelium can expand which is regulated by nitric oxide. So, foods high in nitrates—leafy greens like spinach, arugula and watercress—act to promote a healthy endothelium by providing more of the products necessary for the chemical reactions to take place to stimulate the endothelium when it needs to react. 

Phenolic compounds are also thought to play a role in supporting this process although I’ll be honest I’m not entirely sure how yet.  

Spinaca Farms: You’ve mentioned watercress before—why is it such a wonder veggie?

Dr. Fogarty: Watercress is ridiculously high in both nitrates and phenolics and we’ve looked at the impact of feeding people this food in two different conditions. One is for enhanced exercise performance and our early results would suggest that endurance exercise performance can be improved with this food as a supplement take 2hrs before a time trial on a bike.  

Away from exercise we fed some people watercress before they took a simulated flight for 4hrs—so relatively short. The risk with air travel and vascular issues is well documented so eating a food that can enhance your endothelium’s ability to react to challenges of air travel is a sensible strategy.  We haven’t analysed the data yet so I wouldn’t want to promote a particular course of action for people without the evidence to support it—but stay tuned. There’s more to come.