Avoiding high-carb processed foods cuts heart disease risk in women by 30 percen

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Avoiding high-carb processed foods cuts heart disease risk in women

by 30 percent

Friday, November 10, 2006 by: Jessica Fraser

 

http://www.newstarget.com/021039.html

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(NewsTarget) A new Harvard study has found that women who eat diets

low in carbohydrates but high in vegetable-based fats and proteins

can reduce their risk of heart disease by as much as 30 percent.

The researchers examined a study of more than 80,000 nurses, and

found that healthy fats from foods such as avocados, nuts, seafood

and liquid vegetable oils can help women reduce their heart disease

by as much as a third.

 

Women also benefit from increasing their consumption of less-

processed carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables and whole-grain

bread and cereal products, the study found.

 

The researchers' findings, published in yesterday's New England

Journal of Medicine, indicate that replacing processed

carbohydrates -- such as white bread, bagels, candy, cookies and

cake -- and animal fats with healthy plant-based oils " can help

reduce the risk of heart disease, " according to Tufts University

professor Alice H. Lichtenstein.

 

However, the scientists note that their research was not intended to

help women lose weight. Though reducing carbohydrate intake was once

a popular weight-loss method, the researchers say their findings

advocate a more moderate approach to carb intake than the Atkins

diet.

 

" We didn't really design the study to look at weight loss, " said

lead researcher Frank Hu, an associate professor of nutrition and

epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

 

According to Lichtenstein, " there's no magic formula for weight

loss, " and dieters must still focus on reducing their total calorie

intake -- as well as increasing exercise levels -- to successfully

lose weight.

 

Hu and his colleagues found that participants in the study who

reported eating a moderately reduced carbohydrate diet, such as that

suggested for heart benefits, experienced " no significant long-term

effect on body weight. "