The benefits of eating fruits and vegetables for the heart

Eating more nutritious foods of plant origin is healthy for the heart at any age, according to two research studies that have been published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access magazine of the American Heart Association.

In two separate studies in which different measures of consumption of healthy plant foods were analyzed, the researchers found that both young adults and postmenopausal women had less heart attacks and were less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases when they ate healthy vegetable foods.

With the corroboration of these studies, the American Heart Association launches a series of dietary and lifestyle recommendations with which they suggest a general healthy dietary pattern that emphasizes a variety of fruits and vegetables, integral grains, low -fat dairy products,Birds, skin without skin, nuts, legumes and non -tropical vegetable oils.

In addition, this entity also advises to limit the consumption of saturated fats, trans fats, sodium, red meat, sweets and sugary drinks, among other products.

The consumption of vegetables in young adults

The first study, entitled "A diet centered on plants and the risk of incident cardiovascular disease during young or middle adulthood", evaluated whether the long -term consumption of a diet focused on fruits and vegetables and a change towards a centered dietIn vegetables from early adulthood they are associated with less risk of cardiovascular disease in the middle age.

Previous investigations had focused on analyzing the benefits of individual nutrients or individual food.However, there were few data on a diet focused on plants and long -term risk of suffering cardiovascular disease, explained Yuni Choi, lead author of the study carried out in young adults and postdoctoral researcher in the Division of Epidemiology and Community HealthFrom the Public Health School of the University of Minnesota, in the United States.

Thus, Choi and his companions examined the diet and the appearance of heart disease in 4.946 adults who enrolled in the Risk Development Study of Coronary Artery in Young Adults (Cardia).The participants were between 18 and 30 years old at the time of registration to the study and had not suffered any cardiovascular disease until that moment.

The participants underwent eight monitoring exams from 1987-88 to 2015-16 among which laboratory tests, physical measurements, medical records and evaluation of lifestyle factors were included.Participants were not told that they ate certain things and their score was not informed in diet measures, so researchers were able to collect non -biased data from the usual long -term diet.

After detailed interviews about the history of the diet, the quality of the participants' diets was described according to the quality score of the a priori diet (APDQS) composed of 46 food groups in the years 0, 7 and 20 of the study.Food groups were classified as beneficial foods (such as fruits, vegetables, beans, walnuts and integral cereals);Adverse foods (such as fried potatoes, red meat with high fat content, salty snacks, cakes and soft drinks);and neutral foods (such as potatoes, refined cereals, lean meats and seafood) according to their association known and related to cardiovascular diseases.

Participants who received higher scores ate a variety of major foods, while people who had lower scores ate more adverse and more harmful foods.In general, the highest values correspond to a diet focused on plants and rich in nutrients.

A vegetable -based diet improved the cardiovascular health of young adults

Finally, the researchers found that, during the 32 years of follow -up, 289 of the participants developed cardiovascular diseases, including heart attack, stroke, heart failure, heart pain related to the heart or obstructed arteries anywhere Body.

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On the other hand, the study also concluded that the people who obtained scores a 20% higher in the long -term diet quality score (which means that they ate the richest vegetable foods in nutrients and less products of animal origin negatively evaluated), they had 52% less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases, always after considering several factors, such as age, sex, race, average caloric consumption, education, history of heart disease of parents, smoking and physical activity average activity.

In addition, between the years 7 and 20 of the study, when the ages of the participants ranged between 25 and 50 years, those who improved the quality of their diet, that is, that consumed more beneficial plant foods and less animal products evaluatednegatively, they had 61% less likely to develop subsequent cardiovascular diseases, compared to participants whose diet quality was worse.

Experts point out that there were few vegetarians among the participants, so the study could not evaluate the possible benefits of a strict vegetarian diet, which excludes all products of animal origin, including meat, dairy and eggs.

Thus, with these results, the study concluded that "a diet nutritionally rich and plants centered is beneficial to cardiovascular health.In addition, a diet centered on plants should not necessarily be vegetarian, "said Choi, who stressed that it is essential that people choose between plant foods that are as natural as possible, not highly processed.

Experts believe that people can include products of animal origin in moderation from time to time, such as corral birds, non -fried fish, eggs and dairy.Although the truth is that as it is an observational study, it cannot prove a cause and effect relationship between diet and heart disease.

The consumption of vegetables in postmenopausic women

In the second study, entitled "Relationship between a dietary portfolio based on plants and the risk of cardiovascular disease: findings of the prospective cohort study of the Women's Health Initiative (Whi)", the researchers, in collaboration with the researchers ofWhi, led by Simin Liu, a professor at Brown University, evaluated whether diets that included foods of plant origin, according to the portfolio diet approved by the United States Drug and Food Administration to reduce bad cholesterol levels, areThey associated with fewer cardiovascular disease events in a large group of postmenopausal women.

The portfolio diet includes, among other foods, nuts, soybean vegetable protein, beans, tofu, oatmeal, barley, quimbombó, eggplant, oranges, apples, berries;Vegetable sterols, monounsaturated fats of olive oil, canola, avocados and limited consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol in the diet.

Previously, two randomized trials had already shown that consuming food included in the portfolio diet showed a significant reduction of "bad" cholesterol or low density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Therefore, this new study intended to analyze whether postmenopausal women who followed the portfolio diet experienced fewer heart disease events.

Thus, the investigation included 123.330 women from the United States who participated in the Women's Health Initiative, a national long -term study that analyzes risk factors, prevention and early detection of serious health conditions in postmenopausal women.

The portfolio diet was favorable to the health of the heart

The researchers analyzed the data to qualify each woman in terms of compliance with the portfolio diet.Finally, they found that, compared to women who followed the portfolio diet less frequentcoronary and 17% less likely to develop heart failure.

In addition, the study concluded that there was no association between following the portfolio diet more closely and the occurrence of stroke or atrial fibrillation.

Therefore, “these results have an important opportunity, since there is still room for people to incorporate more plant foods to reduce cholesterol in their diets.With an even greater adherence to the portfolio dietary pattern, one would expect an association with even less cardiovascular events and reach the minimum benefit threshold for any person.The results indicate that the portfolio diet produces benefits for the health of the heart, ".Michael's Hospital, in Canada.

In this way, researchers believe that the results of the investigation highlight the possible opportunities to reduce heart disease by encouraging people to consume more foods that are included in the portfolio diet.

Although this second study was also observational, so it cannot directly establish a cause and effect relationship between diet and cardiovascular events.Despite this, researchers believe that it provides a more reliable estimate to treat the diet-corazón ratio

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