Health for life

Common sense dictates that a diet filed with fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and legumes that eliminate excessive red and processed meats, fried foods and sugary sweets will benefit overall health as it naturally extends lifespan. Many people rely heavily on fast convenience and processedfoods that are virtually void of any bioactive nutrients and actually stimulate the storage of body fat and encourage development and progression of most chronic illnesses that shorten our lives.

Researchers from the University of Oxford in the UK have published the result of a studyin The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that explains how the risk of hospitalization or death from heart disease is thirty-two percent lower in vegetarians than people who eat meat and fish. Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in all western societies, taking the lives of more than 700,000 men and women each year in the US alone.

In the largest study of its kind conducted in the UK, scientists compared rates of heart disease between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Lead study author Dr. Francesca Crowe noted “Most of the difference in risk is probably caused by effects on cholesterol and blood pressure, and shows the important role of diet in the prevention of heart disease.” Researchers analyzed the diet of nearly 45,000 British and Scottish volunteers enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Thirty-four percent of the participants were vegetarian.

Volunteers completed a lifestyle questionnaire detailing diet and exercise as well as other factors affecting health such as smoking and alcohol consumption. Almost 20,000 participants had their blood pressures recorded, and gave blood samples for cholesterol testing. Participants were tracked for nearly twenty years and researchers identified 1,235 cases of heart disease, which resulted in 169 deaths and 1,066 hospital diagnoses.

Thousands of research studies over the past decade have heralded the critical importance of eating a diet filled with flavonoids from a variety of brightly colored vegetables and fruits to help prevent and even treat many chronic illnesses. Most plants and fruits rely on flavonoid compounds for protection against the environment and to propagate and flourish. These same properties support human health by altering genetic expression and specifically targeting essential metabolic processes to ward off diseases such as cancer, dementia and the most prevalent killer of men and women, cardiovascular disease.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Healthdeveloped a study to analyze a specific sub-class of flavonoids, called anthocyanins, that has been shown to help dilate arteries, counter the buildup of plaque and provide other cardiovascular benefits. Publishing in the journal Circulation, the scientists found that women who ate at least three servings of blueberries and strawberries per week had significantly fewer heart attacks. Blueberriesand strawberries contain high levels of anthocyanins that have shown cardiovascular benefits in past research studies.

Over the course of the study review period, 405 women experienced a heart attack. The study team found that women who consumed the most blueberries and strawberries had a 32-percent reduction in their risk of heart attack as compared to women who ate the berries once a month or less. Interestingly, the results did not change in women who otherwise ate a diet rich in other fruits and vegetables, providing solid proof that the flavonoids provided by the berries were responsible for the heart attack risk reduction benefits.

Everybody likes chocolate, a fact supported by the annual increase in consumption documented by chocolate manufacturers around the globe. This may be good news for many chocolate consumers, but caution is advised to caully monitor the quantity consumed and the cocoa content of the product purchased. We now have documented evidence to explain how dark chocolate consumption lowers stroke risk in women and slashes heart disease risk in adults.

Researchers publishingthe Journal of the American College of Cardiology found high chocolate consumption correlates with a lower risk of stroke in women. Further proof of vascular benefits is documented in the British Medical Journal as scientists explain that chocolate consumption lowers heart disease risk by more than a third.

A number of recent studies have shown that eating chocolate has a positive influence on human health due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This includes reducing blood pressure and improving insulin sensitivity, a primary factor in diabetes development and progression in millions of at-risk children and adults. The World Health Organization predicts that nearly 24 million people will die from heart disease by the year 2030, yet proper diet and lifestyle could significantly lower the mortality rate.

In an effort to confirm past research efforts that suggest a connection between chocolate consumption and lowered risk of heart disease and stroke, Dr. Oscar Franco and colleagues from the University of Cambridge in England analyzed the results of seven studies involving over 100,000 participants with and without existing heart disease. Researchers compared the group with the highest chocolate consumption against those with the lowest, taking into account differences in study design and quality of reporting.

Researchers performing a meta-analysis of all studies examined found a significant correlation between higher levels of chocolate consumption and the risk of cardiovascular events. They determined that the "highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37% reduction in cardiovascular disease and a 29% reduction in stroke compared with lowest levels." Although the final analysis did not distinguish between dark and milk chocolate consumption, nutritional experts recommend choosing dark chocolate with minimal added sugar and at least 75% cocoa content.

There are many documented lifestyle changes that have been shown to dramatically lower the risk of heart disease and stroke including vitamin D optimization, fish oil supplementation and potent antioxidants such as resveratrol. Chocolate eaten in small amounts several times a week can now be added to the list as research confirms the powerful human health benefits of cocoa.