Health & Medicine - Posted by Erin White-Northwestern on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 9:38 - 4 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Fiber from whole foods protects heart
Adults who consume a natural high fiber diet between the ages of 20 and 59 were able to significantly lower their estimated risk of cardiovascular disease. (Credit: iStockphoto)
NORTHWESTERN (US) — A high-fiber diet in early adulthood may lower lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease, particularly when the fiber comes from whole foods rather than processed bars and drinks.
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“It’s long been known that high-fiber diets can help people lose weight, lower cholesterol, and improve hypertension,” says Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University.
“The results of this study make a lot of sense because weight, cholesterol, and hypertension are major determinants of your long-term risk for cardiovascular disease.”
The study, the first to show the influence of fiber consumption on the lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease, notes a high-fiber diet falls into the American Heart Association’s recommendation of 25 grams of whole food dietary fiber or more a day.
“A processed food may be high in fiber, but it also tends to be pretty high in sodium and likely higher in calories than an apple, for example, which provides the same amount of fiber,” Lloyd-Jones says.
For the study, researchers examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative sample of about 11,000 adults, taking into consideration diet, blood pressure, total cholesterol, smoking status, and history of diabetes in survey participants and then used a formula to predict lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.
“The results are pretty amazing,” says Hongyan Ning, lead author and a statistical analyst in preventative medicine at Northwestern. “Younger (20 to 39 years) and middle-aged (40 to 59 years) adults with the highest fiber intake, compared to those with the lowest fiber intake, showed a statistically significant lower lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.”
Dietary fiber intake was not significantly associated with a reduction in lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease in adults 60 to 79 years, possibly because the beneficial effect of dietary fiber may require a long period of time to achieve, and older adults may have already developed significant risk for heart disease before starting a high-fiber diet, Ning says. “Starting a high-fiber diet now may help improve your long-term risk.”
More news from Northwestern University: www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/index.html
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4 Comments
No doubt whole foods are best, but for supplements psyllium has the most data on lowering LDL cholesterol.
Marie Deboul Kim
Many people believe they cannot afford the same secret, high quality whole foods and health drinks used by the rich and famous, but that is a misguided assumption. You just have to know where to look. An online health food store is a good place to start the search for high quality whole foods and health drinks because there you can gather information to build the structure for a healthy lifestyle.
Marie Deboul Kim
Albert Paul Einstein IV
Whole foods is a myth to losing weight or staying in top shape. The best thing is to make sure you are inactive for eight hours per day!!!!! Video games is the best exercise for the mind. Especially the games where your always running or in motion because it gets your brain active and aware that you are in a hot pursuit and quickly moving. So dont beleive everything you see and make sure you take the right action in excessive T.V, Gaming,Reading, And lots of Sleeping!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is interesting that a cardiac dietthat is healthy and stays closer to nature will actually lower cardiac risk.
The sad truth is people know that they need to eat better but due to a busy lifestyle don’t make the time to eat better. All it takes to healthy eating is planning and determination, anyone can do it with the right motivation and maybe studies that show that eating healthy will lower your risk factors to heart disease is one way to do it.