Heart-smart diet helps Asians pass acid test

A Mediterranean-style diet, rich in grains, vegetables and fruits, could help to curb the increasing incidence of coronary artery disease among Asians, researchers say.

Although Asians do not have the normal risk factors, such as high blood pressure and raised cholesterol levels, that are linked to coronary artery disease, it is a major public health problem for people in south Asia.

But researchers in India and Israel found that foods containing alpha-linolenic acid, which is essential for health and abundant in the Mediterranean diet, could cut the risk and deaths from heart disease.

"We have shown that a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, legumes, with a high alpha-linolenic acid content is associated with a decrease in cardiovascular events," said Professor Elliot Berry, of the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem.

In a study reported in The Lancet, Berry and colleagues in India and Israel compared the impact of two types of diets on 1000 people suffering from health problems such as angina, heart attacks and diabetes.



Half of the people were put on an "Indo-Mediterranean diet", the Asian diet but with more vegetables, fruits, grains, walnuts and almonds, which are high in alpha-linolenic acid.

The remainder had a conventional south Asian diet, based on rice and including Indian ghee (clarified butter) and hydrogenated oils, as well as fruit and vegetables.

People on the Indo-Mediterranean diet doubled their normal daily intake of the acid. They also had fewer heart attacks and cardiac deaths than the other group during the two-year study.

Professor Berry said the Indo-Mediterranean diet was a safe and economical way to improve the health of poor populations because the foods and oils used were seasonal, traditional, and produced by farmers at a cost of about $1 per day.

- REUTERS

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