March 30, 2023 – In individuals with heart and vascular problems, a Mediterranean or low-fat food regimen may reduce the chance of early death and non-fatal heart attack, a recent detailed study shows.
Published on Wednesday within the magazine BMJThe study analyzed data from 40 previous studies involving a complete of 35,548 participants. Participants either had heart problems or had at the very least two risk aspects for it, similar to hypertension, diabetes, obesity or high cholesterol. The evaluation compared how well different diets protected people prone to heart problems in comparison with simply giving people a brochure about healthy eating.
The researchers said there have been “no convincing differences between the Mediterranean and low-fat” diets by way of whether one reduced the chance of death or the likelihood of a heart attack greater than the opposite. People at higher risk benefited most from the food regimen.
The researchers defined a low-fat food regimen as limiting fat intake to twenty to 30 percent of each day calories and saturated fat intake to lower than 10 percent of each day calories. The Mediterranean food regimen was defined as eating a number of fish, fruit, vegetables and monounsaturated fats similar to olive oil.
Participants on these two diets fared higher than those on five other diets, including diets that further reduced fat, restricted sodium intake, increased plant-based foods, or used a fancy formula for a lot of predictable elements of food similar to carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. The names of the opposite diets studied were very low fat, modified fat, combined low fat and low sodium, Ornish, and Pritikin.
The other five diets “generally had little or no benefit compared to” handing out a brochure about healthy eating, the researchers wrote.
The researchers said their findings were vital because they only checked out data from randomized controlled trials, that are the gold standard in research design because participants in these trials cannot select whether or not they are in a treatment group or a control group. Randomized controlled trials are especially vital for checking out whether a treatment is effective and for ensuring the outcomes will not be influenced by other aspects.