India Health & Wellness blog

Listen to your heart, and eat

14th April, 2009 - Posted by admin -

CHICAGO: What we know for sure about diet and what protects the heart is a relatively short list. That’s what new research, based on an analysis 

of about 200 studies involving millions of people, has found.

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. 

The study, appearing in 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 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. 

Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, said the analysis reaffirms the benefits of a Mediterranean diet — rich in vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish and olive oil. 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.