茄子直播

Portfolio diet helps to lower many risk factors for heart disease, 茄子直播 study finds

Photo of nuts
One of the main components of the portfolio diet is 45 grams of nuts, or about a handful, each day (photo by Explorer Bob via Flickr)

University of Toronto researchers have found that the portfolio diet, a plant-based way of eating previously shown to lower cholesterol levels, reduces other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including blood pressure, triglycerides and inflammation.

In addition to reducing LDL (or 鈥渂ad鈥) cholesterol by about 30 per cent when combined with a low-saturated fat diet 鈥 a level comparable to medications 鈥 the researchers found the diet limited other factors for an estimated 13-per-cent reduction in the overall risk for coronary heart disease, which includes angina and heart attack.

鈥淲e鈥檝e known the portfolio diet lowers LDL cholesterol, but we didn鈥檛 have a clear picture of what else it could do,鈥 says John Sievenpiper (pictured left), an associate professor in the department of nutritional sciences at 茄子直播 and a staff physician and scientist at St. Michael鈥檚 Hospital. 鈥淭his study allows for greater clarity and certainty about the effects of the diet and its health potential.鈥

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis that combined results from seven controlled trials involving more than 400 patients, and found that specific risk factors varied from about a 2-per-cent reduction (for blood pressure) to a 32-per-cent reduction (for inflammation). The study .

鈥淲hen you look at individual trials alone, data on these other risk factors can appear random,鈥 says David Jenkins, a professor in the departments of nutritional sciences and medicine at 茄子直播 who holds a Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Metabolism, and who developed the portfolio diet in the early 2000s. 鈥淏ut when you pool the results of several trials, the risk reductions become clear and together they provide a really strong case for the cardiovascular benefits of the dietary portfolio.鈥

The portfolio diet has four main components. Based on a 2,000-calorie diet, it includes 45 grams of nuts, or about a handful; 50 grams of plant protein such as soy, or pulses like beans and peas; 20 grams of viscous soluble fibre from oats, eggplant, apples, etc.; and 2 grams of plant sterols 鈥 natural compounds that inhibit absorption of cholesterol and are often included in enriched products like margarine.

Dietary and lifestyle modifications can enable patients to manage high cholesterol and cardiovascular risk, and the current study provides further rationale for that approach.

鈥淲e鈥檙e starting to say to patients, 鈥楾his diet will help you meet your cholesterol goals, but it will also improve your blood lipids and blood pressure, and lower inflammation,鈥欌 says Sievenpiper. 鈥淭he same is not true for drugs, and they often produce other effects you don鈥檛 want.鈥

Adherence to the diet can be challenging for some patients, but many find that incorporating just a few more plant-based foods offers noticeable benefits. 鈥淥ne nice thing about the diet is that the effects are additive, so adopting one or more components is better than none. It鈥檚 not an all or nothing proposition, which is why we also call it a dietary portfolio,鈥 says Sievenpiper.

The study鈥檚 findings on inflammation are particularly exciting, says Jenkins, who is also director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael鈥檚. Growing evidence suggests inflammation plays a role in cardiovascular disease, but recent studies have linked it to a host of other diseases, including cancer.

鈥淓specially with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, prostate cancer, and other watch-and-wait diseases, reducing inflammation may greatly extend a patient鈥檚 lifetime,鈥 he says.

Some patients also choose the portfolio diet for ethical and environmental reasons 鈥 plant-based diets generally have a smaller eco-footprint than standard Western diets 鈥 or in the case of children, to head off future health problems.

鈥淐ardiovascular and other health risk factors can be elevated in children, and we鈥檙e learning that early intervention is really important for them,鈥 says Sievenpiper, who is also a scientist in the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition. 鈥淭here are many reasons to consider this diet, from its planetary significance to health across the lifespan.鈥

The study was commissioned by the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, the Canada Research Chairs Program, PSI Foundation, and the Banting & Best Diabetes Centre.

 

 

The Bulletin Brief logo

Subscribe to The Bulletin Brief

Faculty of Medicine