Diet Cuts Heart Disease by 24 percent in massive government study of Women...88,000..

[Stuart G]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24113275 /


updated 3:01 p.m. CT, Mon., April. 14, 2008

CHICAGO - A large study offers the strongest evidence yet that a diet the government recommends for lowering blood pressure can save people from heart attack and stroke.

Researchers followed more than 88,000 healthy women for almost 25 years. They examined their food choices and looked at how many had heart attacks and strokes. Those who fared best had eating habits similar to those recommended by the government to stop high blood pressure.

The plan, called the DASH diet, favors fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk and plant-based protein over meat.

Women with those eating habits were 24 percent less likely to have a heart attack and 18 percent less likely to have a stroke than women with more typical American diets.

Those are meaningful reductions since these diseases are so common. About two in five U.S. women at age 50 will eventually develop cardiovascular disease, which includes heart attacks and strokes. Women in the study were in their mid-30s to late 50s when the research began in 1980.

Heart-healthy diet

Here are examples of food choices made by healthy women in a 24-year study. They had fewer heart attacks and strokes than women with less healthy eating habits. The choices listed below are similar to the government’s DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension).
— More than eight total servings of fruits and vegetables daily. A serving is a half-cup of cooked vegetables or one cup raw, or a small piece of fruit.
— One total serving daily of nuts and legumes, about a handful of peanuts or a half-cup legumes, including lentils, kidney beans and split peas.
— At least two servings daily of whole grains. A serving is a slice of whole-grain bread or a half-cup cooked whole-grain pasta or rice, or about a cup of dry cereal.
— Almost two daily servings of low-fat dairy products. A serving equals eight ounces of milk or one cup of yogurt.
— A half serving daily of red or processed meats, including bacon and hot dogs. A full serving is about the size of a deck of cards. (The DASH diet does not recommend those high-fat meats. It calls for no more than two servings daily of lean meat, fish or poultry.)
Source: The Associated Press
Previous research has shown this kind of diet can help prevent high blood pressure and cholesterol, which both can lead to heart attacks.

The new study appears in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.

People might think, “I don’t have high blood pressure, so I don’t have to follow it,” said Simmons University researcher Teresa Fung, the study’s lead author. However, the results suggest, she said, that “even healthy people should get on it.”

About 15,000 women in the study had diets that closely resembled the low blood pressure diet. They ate about twice as many fruits, vegetables and grains as the estimated 18,000 women whose diets more closely resembled typical American eating habi

[Brigid]

1. Very interesting!

I will have to get on a computer that has a printer so that I can print this out. Thanks. :)

[LynzM]

2. Can we put this in the *duh* category?

Eat food that's better for you, get sick less? :rofl:

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. Apparently some folks

still haven't gotten the memo.

[Skittles]

4. yup

not hard to figure out that fruits and veggies are better for us than red meat