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Eating to
ease inflammation
(This
article was first printed in the September
2004 issue of the Harvard Heart
Letter. For more information or to order,
please go to http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart.)
Inflammation, so the thinking goes, lights a
fire under heart disease by fueling atherosclerosis,
the process that gives rise to cholesterol-clogged
arteries. Can you cool it? Try a Mediterranean-type
diet, suggests a report in the July 7, 2004Journal
of the American College of Cardiology.
As part of a large study of heart disease risk
factors in Greece, nearly 3,000 healthy residents
of Attica, the province that includes Athens,
detailed their eating habits and gave blood samples.
Those who most closely followed a traditional
Mediterranean diet had lower blood levels of
substances that signal inflammation, including
C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and fibrinogen,
as well as fewer white blood cells than those
who didn’t. Because the researchers didn’t
follow the volunteers’ health over time,
they couldn’t tell if those with less inflammation
were also less likely to develop heart disease.
There’s really no such thing as the Mediterranean
diet. More than a dozen countries border the
Mediterranean Sea, each with distinct foods and
dietary habits. In general, though, it means
eating plenty of plant foods (fruits, vegetables,
beans, whole grains, and nuts), using olive oil
or other unsaturated fats for cooking, eating
more fish and poultry and less red meat, and
drinking wine with meals, as represented in the
pyramid below.
Following a Mediterranean-type diet doesn’t
guarantee freedom from heart disease, although
several studies show strong connections between
this eating pattern and lower rates of heart
attacks and deaths from heart disease. That said,
these results are in line with the near-incontrovertible
evidence that healthy eating is one route by
which you can steer clear of heart disease or
avoid future problems.

(This article was first printed in the September
2004 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter.
For more information or to order, please go
to http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart.)
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