CHICAGO — What we know for sure about diet and what protects the heart is a 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 such as 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,” said study co-author Dr. Sonia Anand of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who hopes the findings “decrease the confusion around what we should (and) 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.
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 it at the top of the list.
Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the analysis is more about the limits and strengths 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 with a Western diet, heavy on processed meats, red meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy.
“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.
Food breakdown
“Good”
• Vegetables
• Nuts
• Monounsaturated fatty acids (found in olive oil)
• Mediterranean diet: rich in vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains, cheese or yogurt, fish and olive oil
“Bad”
• Trans-fatty acids (found in many cookies and snack foods)
• High-glycemic-index foods (starchy carbs such as white bread)
• Western diet: high intake of processed meat, red meat, butter, high-fat dairy products, eggs and refined grains
Source: The Associated Press
