The British Medical Journal reports that dietary fibre can prevent heart disease. Multiple studies have already found an association between fibre and cardiovascular disease, but there are many different types of dietary fibre, and not all studies were big enough to get the numbers needed to make definite recommendations. The new research is a systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 cohort studies showing that — overall — seven grams daily of dietary fibre — of whatever sort — can cut heart disease by nine per cent and that this effect is dose dependent. Dr Victoria Burley, Associate Professor, Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science & Nutrition, University of Leeds, UK, gave AudioMedica.com her take on the latest recommendations coming out of these findings:
“It’s not really very different from all the general healthy eating advice it’s not different at all — in fact — from what people have been suggesting for the last two decades. Since the early 1990s people have been advised to consume in the region of 20 to 25 grams of dietary fibre a day and to get that through their “five-a-day”, fruit and veg, but also to try and use — wherever possible — the whole grain versions of cereal foods, whole grain bread, higher fibre breakfast cereals. And I think we’ve kind of ‘lost the way’ a bit with dietary fibre: we all get hung up on whether we should be eating high carbohydrate or high fat diets and so on to maintain body weight but actually the evidence is remarkably consistent that people should be getting a good intake of dietary fibre. And to do that from consuming a wide range of sources is what doctors should be recommending,” she noted.
SOURCE: Eat more fibre
BMJ 2013;347:f7401
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f7401 (Published 19 December 2013)
Link: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.f7401
Dr Victoria Burley
Associate Professor, Nutritional Epidemiology Group, School of Food Science & Nutrition, University of Leeds, UK
