Fiber from fruit, cereal keeps heart healthy
 

Fiber from fruit, cereal keeps heart healthy

Last Updated: 2004-02-23 16:00:19 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Not all forms of fiber may offer equal protection from heart disease, new research released Monday suggests.

Specifically, investigators found that only dietary fiber from cereals and fruits - and not vegetables - appeared to reduce the risk of heart disease. "There was nothing at all for vegetable fiber, and we don't really know why," study author Dr. Mark Pereira told Reuters Health.

But even if future studies demonstrate that fiber from vegetables is useless in warding off heart disease, he said, eating vegetables provides people with many other important nutrients that protect against heart disease and other conditions.

"There are still many, many reasons to have vegetables in your diet," said Pereira, who is based at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

People should still strive to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, he added.

Although researchers have long known that eating fiber can help prevent heart disease, it has been unclear whether different forms of fiber protect people differently, and whether total fiber prevents heart disease just as well in both men and women.

During the study, conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Pereira and his colleagues pooled the results of 10 studies conducted in the U.S. and Europe. All told, the researchers reviewed information collected about fiber and heart disease from more than 330,000 men and women.

They found that for every increase in total fiber intake of 10 grams per day, the risk of developing heart disease within the next six to ten years fell by 14 percent. The same increment in fiber intake was associated with 27 percent decrease in the risk of dying from heart-related illness.

However, only fiber from fruits and whole grains appeared to reduce the risk of heart disease, while fiber from vegetables had no influence on heart health.

Eating more fiber appeared to reduce the risk of heart disease equally well in both men and women, Pereira and his team report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In comments to Reuters Health, Pereira said there are many potential explanations for why fiber may help the body ward off heart disease. For instance, research has shown that fiber can protect the heart by reducing levels of so-called "bad" cholesterol, decreasing the risk of blood clots and lowering blood pressure.

Although fiber from vegetables overall exerted no protective effect on the heart, fiber from certain "high quality" vegetables may still reduce the risk of disease, Pereira noted. Specifically, people who opt not for starchy vegetables like corn or potatoes but choose green, leafy vegetables that are fresh or frozen, rather than overly processed, may see some heart-healthy benefits, he said.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, February 23, 2004.



http://www.reutershealth.com/archiv...223elin014.html

So they reviewed the results of 10 previous studies. Were the studies chosen at random? or selected specifically? Did the subjects also eat a lot of margarine and hydrogenated vegetable fats??

Hmmmmm ...


Doreen

Still another fine example of junk science....

Take a bunch of studies, combine the results, and look for an association. When you get a good one, assume causation from correlation and off you go!

Makes me angry...!

I'd guess yes. Most people I know serve their veggies swimming in either margarine or light/low fat dressings.

This article makes it sound as if the only reason we eat fiber is to help our heart. Personally, when I think about the benefits of fiber, it's much more short term than heart health ... ie, helping the ol' colon do its thing. :lol:

I checked the article abstract http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/co...tract/164/4/370 .. to see if there was more information, but no. It seems they were looking specifically for evidence that fiber consumption reduced heart disease risk .. and didn't consider other factors other than fiber. What about antioxidants?? whole wheat has vitamin E. Fruits have vitamin C.

Also, did "fruit" only apply to sweet fruits, or did they also include the following?: tomatoes, olives, bell peppers/capsicums, eggplant, squash, cucumbers, avocados, zucchinis, etc ..


Doreen

I'm a scientist so "studies" like this piss me off royally. I mean, let's see, you're not supposed to compare apples with oranges, but comparing apples with green beans is informative. Yuh, right, and I've got a bridge to sell you.

Exactly what I was thinking...
 

The article at the end pinpoints the nutrient-dense vegetables which also are coincidentally high in antioxidants. The effect of fiber (or the plant products which have fiber) also are reported to have positive anti-cancer benefits.

Perhaps it's not just the fiber but what goes along with the fiber that makes the difference.

I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.

As I was reading this I was not impressed with the study at all, but I was intrigued about how they could come to the conclusion that vegetable fiber was not as good for your heart as fiber from fruit and cereal - sounded kind of strange. Then I started to wonder just how these people defined 'vegetable'. At the end of the article came confirmation of my suspicions.

Although fiber from vegetables overall exerted no protective effect on the heart, fiber from certain "high quality" vegetables may still reduce the risk of disease, Pereira noted. Specifically, people who opt not for starchy vegetables like corn or potatoes but choose green, leafy vegetables that are fresh or frozen, rather than overly processed, may see some heart-healthy benefits, he said.

There you go folks. If you eat 'high quality' veggies you're all right. As if we didn't know that. These turkeys included shoveling corn and potatoes into your mouth as 'eating vegetables'. Omigosh, they think that stopping by McDonald's for an order of fries constitutes eating veggies.

It's getting easier and easier to spot the garbage in these 'scientific' studies.
:roll:

Turtle2003: I totally love it! Thanks for looking closely. I hope the low carb community stays on top of things like this. Plus I know some person will be tossing it at me since I am a low carber so now I have the appropriate retort, "ha!".

Exactly. Why does this fly in the "real world" when I'd get a D if I handed this report in to my statistics 101 professor? :rolleyes: