The Best Science On Heart-Healthy Foods

CHICAGO — What we know for sure about diet and what protects the heart is a relatively short list.

That's the conclusion of new research based on an analysis of nearly 200 studies involving millions of people.

Vegetables, nuts and the Mediterranean diet made the grocery list of "good" heart foods. On the "bad" list: starchy carbs like white bread and the trans fats in many cookies and french fries.

The "question mark" list includes meat, eggs and milk and many other foods where there's not yet strong evidence about whether they're good or bad for the heart.

"I do research. I also buy groceries for my family every week," said study co-author Dr. Sonia Anand of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who hopes the findings "decrease the confusion around what we should eat and what we shouldn't eat."

The study, appearing in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, doesn't actually read like a shopping list. It's a complicated explanation of how the researchers rated 189 prior studies on the topic.

In short, they used criteria developed by Sir Austin Bradford Hill, the late British scientist who helped establish a link between smoking and lung cancer. When multiple studies on a certain food or diet showed a strong link with better heart health, that put the food or diet at the top of the list.

Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, said the analysis underlines that there's a big gray area and a shorter list of foods with strong links to heart health.

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Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said the analysis is more about the strengths and limits of previous studies than advice for consumers.

But she said the analysis reaffirms the benefits of a Mediterranean diet _ rich in vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish and olive oil _ compared to a Western diet, heavy on processed meats, red meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy.

Beyond that, she found no reason to tear up your grocery list based on the findings.

"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," Van Horn said.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health supported the research.

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Comments

[Phytoresearcher]

Science is increasingly devoted to discovering ways to counter our stressed out, sedentary lifestyles by modifying our genes or bodily processes. First it was announced by Dr. Sinclair at Harvard that Transmax resveratrol, a commercial extract of a red wine molecule produced by scientists at biotivia was able to switch on the SirT1 anti-aging gene and prevent the normal diseases of aging. Then scientists reported that a drug called Aircar that had been around for decades is capable or making sedentary mice into olympic contenders by modifying their muscles and increasing their endurance. Soon after that Harvard announced a way to create customized stem cells to treat specific diseases. It appears that within a decade drugs and gene therapy will replace exercise, diet and healthy living as remedies for obesity, heart disease and cancer.

[krayonc]

Lifemax Mila chia ...ain't NOTHIN better. Tasteless & you can eat it with anything. Blows flax out of the water. As for cholesterol, it's just as good as Lipitor with none of the bs side effects. I LOVE IT. (I love blueberries too)

[steveparkermd]

A radical result in the study at hand is that the researchers found insufficient evidence to link coronary heart disease with dietary saturated and total fat. In traditional medical circles, this is sacrilegious - a violation of the Diet-Heart Hypothesis. This should be the main headline - the rest is old news.

Unfortunately, the article abstract does not mention dietary cholesterol. Nor do many of the 290 pertinent news articles covering this study thus far.

-Steve Parker, M.D.
http://AdvancedMediterraneanDiet.com/blog//

[emncaity]

Hmm...thanks for the heads-up, and from somebody who should know, too (as opposed to the typical "everybody's got an opinion" poster)...

[liminal67]

Eat Blueberries... seriously they are a real "super food" and are amazingly good for you.. and they taste good on cereal or my favorite way on a pie..Blueberries...Check it out....

http://pitchbendpost.blogspot.com/