If you are confused about what you should or shouldn't eat to reduce your chances of developing heart disease-you're not alone. Discerning the claims made about food and diets and interpreting the multitude of conflicting studies done on the subject would confound even the most astute. Thankfully, the good people of the Population Health Research Institute took on that task for us, and it turns out that the list of heart-healthy foods is a relatively short one.
For the study, Andrew Mente, Ph.D. and colleagues rated 189 prior studies published between 1950 and 2007. When a certain food or diet showed a strong link with better heart health and appeared in multiple studies, that food or diet was put at the top of the "good" list, while foods linked to an increased risk of heart disease was place on the "bad" list.
As you can probably guess, vegetables, nuts and the Mediterranean diet, which is high in vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains, cheese or yogurt and fish, made the "good" heart food list, showing "strong evidence" of lowering the risk of heart disease. The researchers also found that several other foods including omega-3 fatty acids from fish, whole grains, alcohol, vitamins E and C, beta carotene, folate, fruit and fiber showed "moderate evidence" to support a heart-healthy claim.
Conversely, the Western-style diet heavy on red and processed meats, refined grains and high-fat dairy, as well as foods high in trans-fatty acids such as processed baked goods, fried foods, and snacks or foods with high glycemic index such as white bread, pasta and rice were shown to raise the risk of heart disease.
That leaves many other foods, including milk and eggs, in a big gray area. "Taken together, these findings support a causal relationship between only a few dietary exposures and coronary heart disease, whereas the evidence of most individual nutrients or foods is too modest to be conclusive, "the team said.
Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said while the analysis reaffirms the benefits of a Mediterranean diet, it is more about the strengths and limits of previous studies than advice for consumers. "It's really about the totality of the usual eating pattern, rather than whether you ate a hot dog on opening day of baseball season, "she said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.7 million deaths each year are attributable to a diet low in fruits and vegetables. Globally it is estimated to cause about 19 percent of gastrointestinal cancer, 31 percent of ischaemic heart disease, and 11 percent of strokes -thus making it one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide.
The study was supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health and was published in the April 13 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
For the study, Andrew Mente, Ph.D. and colleagues rated 189 prior studies published between 1950 and 2007. When a certain food or diet showed a strong link with better heart health and appeared in multiple studies, that food or diet was put at the top of the "good" list, while foods linked to an increased risk of heart disease was place on the "bad" list.
As you can probably guess, vegetables, nuts and the Mediterranean diet, which is high in vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains, cheese or yogurt and fish, made the "good" heart food list, showing "strong evidence" of lowering the risk of heart disease. The researchers also found that several other foods including omega-3 fatty acids from fish, whole grains, alcohol, vitamins E and C, beta carotene, folate, fruit and fiber showed "moderate evidence" to support a heart-healthy claim.
Conversely, the Western-style diet heavy on red and processed meats, refined grains and high-fat dairy, as well as foods high in trans-fatty acids such as processed baked goods, fried foods, and snacks or foods with high glycemic index such as white bread, pasta and rice were shown to raise the risk of heart disease.
That leaves many other foods, including milk and eggs, in a big gray area. "Taken together, these findings support a causal relationship between only a few dietary exposures and coronary heart disease, whereas the evidence of most individual nutrients or foods is too modest to be conclusive, "the team said.
Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said while the analysis reaffirms the benefits of a Mediterranean diet, it is more about the strengths and limits of previous studies than advice for consumers. "It's really about the totality of the usual eating pattern, rather than whether you ate a hot dog on opening day of baseball season, "she said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.7 million deaths each year are attributable to a diet low in fruits and vegetables. Globally it is estimated to cause about 19 percent of gastrointestinal cancer, 31 percent of ischaemic heart disease, and 11 percent of strokes -thus making it one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide.
The study was supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health and was published in the April 13 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
