PhD degree for Cindy van der Avoort

Cindy van der Avoort succesfully defended her thesis entiteld "Increasing vegetable consumption as a strategy to induce the health promoting effects of dietary nitrate?"  

Outline of her thesis
May have a positive effect on our cardiovascular system by lowering blood pressure. There are several substances in vegetables that can potentially provide this, of which nitrate seems to be one. Until now it is not known whether eating more nitrate-rich vegetables can have a positive effect on our health. That is why this dissertation researched the possible effect of this. From the studies of this dissertation it can be concluded that eating more nitrate-rich vegetables (200-250 grams per day) can cause a decrease of the blood pressure. This is clearly visible in healthy people and in those with high blood pressure. The effect does not seem to be present in people suffering from a more serious cardiovascular condition, in this case peripheral vascular disease. For this reason, it is interesting to recommend nitrate-rich vegetables for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, in order to delay or possibly replace the use of medication.

Biography
Cindy van der Avoort (1990) received her degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem and Nijmegen in 2012 and her Master's degree in Nutrition and Health from Wageningen University in 2014. She conducted her PhD research at the Academy of Sport and Exercise at the University of Applied Sciences of Arnhem and Nijmegen, and collaborated with the Radboudumc (Department of Integrative Physiology) and Maastricht University (Department of Human Biology). She combined her research with her work as a teacher at the Academy of Sport and Exercise and as a High Performance partner at TeamNL.

Click here to access Cindy's thesis digitally