A pair of studies have examined the effect that the dietary inflammatory index has on cardiovascular health, and found that inflammatory foods increase cardiovascular risk.
It is known that inflammatory biomarkers such as interleukins, chemokines and adhesion molecules are associated with atherosclerosis, and proinflammatory foods such as red meats are also associated with cardiovascular risk. The study examined 210 000 participants over 32 years, who filled out a dietary survey every four years, and controlled for variables such as overweight.
“Using an empirically-developed, food-based dietary index to evaluate levels of inflammation associated with dietary intake, we found that dietary patterns with higher inflammatory potential were associated with an increased rate of cardiovascular disease,” said Jun Li, MD, Ph.D., lead author of the study and research scientist in the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Our study is among the first to link a food-based dietary inflammatory index with long-term risk of cardiovascular disease.”
The other study looked at the beneficial effects of walnuts, which have a strong anti-inflammatory effect. Participants who were assigned to eat 30-60gm of walnuts a day showed significantly reduced inflammation in 6 of 10 biomarkers used.
“The anti-inflammatory effect of long-term consumption of walnuts demonstrated in this study provides novel mechanistic insight for the benefit of walnut consumption on heart disease risk beyond that of cholesterol lowering,” said Montserrant Cofán, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a researcher at the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain.
Source: Medical Xpress
