Eating more plant foods may reduce the risk of developing heart disease in young adults and older women.
- A predominantly plant-based diet in early adulthood is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease in later life.
- The Portfolio diet to reduce the risk of having cholesterol would also have an impact on the cardiovascular health of women after menopause.
Eating five fruits and vegetables a day is good for your health! And if this slogan, hammered for several years in France, was even more true by eating only these foods? This is the theory of two studies that have just been published in the journal Journal of the American Heart Association : eating plant foods would be better for the heart, at any age! Indeed, this diet would have the effect of reducing the risk of developing heart and/or cardiovascular disease in young adults and in postmenopausal women.
Plants reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease…
In the first study, scientists sought to assess whether, in young adults, long-term consumption of a plant-based diet was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease once they reached the age of forty. . For this, they analyzed the eating behaviors of 4,946 adults, aged 18 to 30 at the time of registration and who had no cardiovascular disease at that time. They were followed from 1987 to 2016 and did not have to follow a specific diet. The food groups they ate were classified by the researchers into different categories, based on their known association with the risk of cardiovascular disease: beneficial foods (such as fruits and vegetables), undesirable foods ( fried potatoes, high fat red meat, salty snacks, pastries and soft drinks) and neutral foods (such as potatoes, refined grains, lean meats and shellfish). In the end, the scientists made scores: higher values corresponded to a diet rich in beneficial foods and centered on plants. Results: People who scored in the top 20% on the long-term diet quality score were 52% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease. Moreover, between the seventh and twentieth year of the study, when the participants were between the ages of 25 and 50, those who improved the quality of their diet the most, that is, by integrating more plant foods and fewer animal products, were less likely (around 61%) to develop later cardiovascular disorders. Nevertheless, there were few vegetarians among the participants, so the study was unable to assess the possible benefits of a strict vegetarian diet.
…coronary pathology and heart failure
In an other studythe researchers sought to understand whether a diet respecting the “diet Portfolio” was associated with lower cardiovascular risk in postmenopausal women. The system of government Portfolio aims to lower cholesterol levels. It consists, for example, of nuts, vegetable protein from soy, beans or tofu, oats, barley, etc. All this with a limited consumption of saturated fats. The study therefore followed 123,330 women until 2017. When they enrolled, between 1993 and 1998, they were between 50 and 79 years old – were generally postmenopausal, with an average age of 62 – and n had no cardiovascular disease. For 15 years, they had to complete self-reported questionnaires about their diet. After analysis, the researchers found that the women who adhered most strictly to the diet Portfolio were 11% less likely than other participants to develop any type of cardiovascular disease. They were also 14% less likely to have coronary artery disease (which affects the arteries of the heart) and 17% less likely to have heart failure. The researchers believe that these results show that by consuming more foods from this diet, it would be possible to reduce heart disease.
The lesson of these two studies, namely to base one’s diet more on plant products, could benefit many people. According to’Pasteur Institute of LilleFrance had 1 million heart failure patients in 2017. Each year, nearly 70,000 deaths and more than 150,000 hospitalizations are linked to heart failure.