Curry originated in Indian traditional diet, and has become widely eaten throughout the world, especially in Asia [1]. In fact, curry is one of the most popular foods in Japan [1]. Japanese curry is often milder in flavor and thicker in consistency than the traditional Indian curry, and usually is served with cooked rice [1]. With a good amount of meat and vegetables in it, Japanese curry can make a convenient and nutritious meal for people of all ages [1].

While being mild in flavor, Japanese curry still contains an abundant amount of spices, some of which are high in antioxidants. For example, turmeric contains antioxidant yellow pigment, curcumin, which is known to have many health benefits such as vasoprotective, antiinflammatory, anticarcinogenic, and neuroprotective effects [2, 3]. Clove contains antioxidant aromatic oil, eugenol, which is also known to have some health benefits such as vasoprotective and pulmonary protective effects [4, 5]. Epidemiologic studies have shown that curry improves pulmonary function in Asian elderly adults [6] and curry consumption improved cognitive performance of nondemented elderly Asians [7]. However, few intervention studies about curry have been reported.

It is well known that postprandial hyperglycemia is a contributing factor to the development of atherosclerosis and is a risk factor for cardiovascular events. A meta-regression analysis showed that the progressive relationship between glucose levels and cardiovascular risk extends even in subjects with normal glucose tolerance below the diabetic threshold [8].

Although mechanism by which postprandial hyperglycemia induces vascular dysfunction is not fully understood, a review by Mar and Bruno points out that oxidative stress-mediated disruptions in nitric oxide homeostasis have been implicated as key events leading to vascular dysfunction [9]. Glucose loading produced a decrease in endothelial function and an increase in a marker of oxidative stress in normal and diabetic subjects [10, 11]. Hyperglycemia in response to oral glucose loading rapidly suppressed endothelium-dependent vasodilation, probably through increased production of oxygen free radicals [11–13].

Accumulating evidence suggests that endothelial dysfunction plays a crucial role in the development and progression of atherosclerosis. The endothelium is suggested to be a target of damage in the postprandial state [14–16].

The aim of this study was to determine whether a single consumption of a dish of Japanese curry and rice would improve postprandial endothelial function in healthy men.

In the present study, we demonstrated that a single consumption of a dish of curry and rice improved the postprandial FMD in healthy men.

We believe the significant interaction effect on FMD between meals and prandial status was due to the antioxidant components in the curry, although consumption of the curry meal did not change the two oxidative stress parameters (MDA-LDL and urine 8-isoprostane) measured in our study. Many researchers reported that FMD was improved by some antioxidant consumption (long term and short term) without 8-isoprostane decrease [21–23]. Few intervention studies using antioxidants report serum MDA-LDL levels. Pfeuffer et al. reported that consumption of 150 mg/d quercetin for 8 weeks affected neither oxidized LDL nor 8-isoprostane [24]. These reports suggest that no change in MDA-LDL and urine 8-isoprostane does not necessarily mean that improvement in FMD is not attributable to decrease in oxidative stress. On the other hand, it has been reported that administration of glucose in oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) impaired endothelial function with concomitant increase in postprandial oxidative stress [11]. It is also reported that the postprandial serum glucose after rice is lower than that after the equivalent amount of glucose consumption [25]. In our study, we found that the test meals containing 82 g carbohydrate, which is nearly equivalent to the amount of glucose administered in 75-g OGTT, increased postprandial serum glucose and a consumption of the control meal resulted in decrease in FMD suggesting impairment of endothelial function. We speculate that the presence of spice antioxidants in the curry would have prevented the increase in the oxidative stress induced by postprandial serum glucose increase, but the change in the oxidative stress parameters after our test meal was too small to be detected, because the postprandial serum glucose level after our test meals (113 mg/dL after control or 117 mg/dL after curry) was much lower than that normally encountered after 75-g oral glucose loading [26].

Curcumin, eugenol and quercetin in curry could have contributed to our results suggesting that spices improved postprandial endothelial function. It was reported that curcumin alleviates an endothelium-dependent vasodilator dysfunction induced by high glucose in rat aortic rings and increased heme oxygenase-1 activity, and that stimulation of guanylyl cyclase may be involved in the protective effects of curcumin [27]. Eugenol was reported to produce smooth muscle relaxation resulting from the blockade of both voltage-sensitive and receptor-operated channels that are modulated by endothelial-generated nitric oxide [4]. It has been also suggested that qurcetin, which is a main polyphenol of onion and is also contained in curry, is known as a selective modulator of cyclic GMP-dependent relaxations [28]. Future studies are needed for elucidating the mechanism of our findings.

After consumption of the test meals, baseline arterial diameter increased significantly. Similar increase in baseline arterial diameter after a fatty meal consumption has been reported [29, 30]. Although many researchers reported that increase in baseline diameter would decrease FMD [31, 32], the increase did not appear to have diminished the effect of spices on FMD, because significant interaction effect between meals and prandial status on baseline diameter was not found, and because the postprandial FMD after curry even increased despite that the increase of baseline diameter should decrease FMD.

It is reported that a single consumption of a high antioxidant spice blend attenuated postprandial insulin and triglyceride responses and increased some plasma measures of antioxidant activities [33]. The results of the present study, however, showed that no interaction effects (i.e., the effects due to spices) on biochemical data between meals (control/curry) and prandial status (fasting/postprandial) were significant. In the previous study, the subjects were given a test meal with different composition, and with different kind of spices. Moreover, they collected blood samples at 30-min intervals for 3.5 h. These differences in experimental conditions may have affected the results.

We found that postprandial diastolic blood pressure decreased and postprandial heart rate increased significantly, but postprandial systolic blood pressure did not change significantly. Berry et al. reported that glucose solution with ground beef (i.e., solid food), when fed to human subjects, caused higher postprandial systolic blood pressure than glucose solution alone (i.e., liquid food) [34]. They also reported that diastolic blood pressure fell and heart rates increased, without significant (observable) effects from the ground beef [34]. Although the mechanisms were not fully understood, the results of our study in which participants consumed solid meal, agree with their findings.

There are some limitations in the current study. The first limitation is our small sample size (n = 14). Follow-up work using a larger sample size may be needed. The second limitation is that because of the unique flavor and color of spices used in the curry, the curry meals were readily distinguishable from the control meals by the subjects. Although we cannot exclude the possibility entirely that this feature of our study had some influence on our results, it is more likely that the presence of spices in the curry reduced the impact of the postprandial state on the endothelium after the meal.

Curry consumption ameliorates postprandial endothelial dysfunction and may be beneficial for preventing cardiovascular events. Lifestyle-related diseases such as atherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus have become serious health problems in the modern world. Curry may be helpful in the fight against those lifestyle-related diseases.