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Another Heart-Healthy Benefit for DASH
Diet
A diet originally designed to help lower blood pressure may also fight
heart disease. A new study shows the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop
Hypertension) can reduce homocysteine levels, a possible independent risk
factor for heart attack and stroke.
Researchers have found if people who eat a typical American diet adopt
the more healthy DASH diet, the drop in homocysteine levels alone could
potentially reduce their risk of heart disease by 7 to 9%, in addition to
the proven heart-healthy benefits of lowering blood pressure and
cholesterol levels. Previous studies have shown that high levels of
homocysteine (a by-product of protein metabolism) are associated with an
increased risk of heart disease.
The DASH, introduced in 1997, is rich in fruits, vegetables and low-fat
dairy foods and low in saturated fat, total fat and cholesterol. The diet
pushes fruits and vegetables even beyond the currently recommended
five-a-day serving, up towards five or ten servings a day.
The study’s author, Dr. Lawrence Appel, associate professor of
medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, says the DASH
diet meets or exceeds the dietary recommendations from the American Heart
Association, US government and American Cancer Society. Researchers say
the diet's emphasis on folate-rich foods such as leafy green vegetables,
whole grains and legumes seems to play a key role in controlling
homocysteine levels.
Even worse news is that homocysteine levels worsened during the course
of the study for participants who followed a typical American diet--low in
fruits, vegetables and dairy products with 37% of its calories from fat.
Dieticians say the following the DASH diet takes some adjustment, but
it is not difficult to do.
"The big difference is the emphasis on the nuts, seeds and beans
as a protein source occasionally in place of some of the animal protein.
For Americans, that's a big adjustment," says Connie Diekman, RD,
spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.
"We now know that the DASH diet lowers lipids, lowers blood
pressures and now lowers homocysteine," says Eva Obarzanek, a
research nutritionist at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and
project officer for the original DASH trial presented in 1997. "As
many ways as we can find to attack heart disease, the better off we
are."
The study is published in Circulation: Journal of the American
Heart Association.
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