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Prevent disease by a healthy diet: the facts
The four most common causes of ill health and premature death in Western affluent nations are, in this order: cancer, heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia. They are all related to a bad diet. Medical authorities such as the American Medical Association and the British Medical Association have no doubt about it, and there's now scientific consensus that a healthy nutrition is the most powerful means of prevention of disease.
Lunch and dinner are intimately linked to life and death: olive oil and broccoli, fresh fruit and red wine are good. Scotch, deep-fried Mars bars and chip butties are bad.
We all know that the right diet is the basis of good health. Both clinical research and epidemiological studies, which compare the rates of diseases in populations with different dietary habits, point in the same direction.
The first thing to notice is the role of vegetables as protectors. Cancer deaths among vegetarians are 39% lower than among those who eat meat.
Some scientific studies
Here are are some examples of scientific studies that support the importance of healthy nutrition to prevent disease. They are particularly important in that they are extensive, or they are the summaries of the results of a large number of studies:
- An important research paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (Vol. 290 No. 4, July 23, 2003) by David J. A. Jenkins et al, tested the effects of a "Dietary Portfolio of Cholesterol-Lowering Foods" on forty-six healthy adults who all had too high cholesterol levels in the blood.
The paper starts by saying:"To enhance the effectiveness of diet in lowering cholesterol, recommendations of the Adult Treatment Panel III of the National Cholesterol Education Program emphasize diets low in saturated fat together with plant sterols and viscous fibers, and the American Heart Association supports the use of soy protein and nuts."
It then goes on: "Objective is to determine whether a diet containing all of these recommended food components leads to cholesterol reduction."
The participants were given for 1 month diets very low in saturated fat, based on milled whole-wheat cereals and low-fat dairy foods, high in plant sterols, soy protein, viscous fibers, and almonds.
The conclusion: "In this study, diversifying cholesterol-lowering components in the same dietary portfolio increased the effectiveness of diet as a treatment of hypercholesterolemia [high blood cholesterol levels]."
Another research, again in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), (Vol. 288 No. 20, November 27, 2002) by Frank B., MD, PhD & Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH, had the title "Optimal Diets for Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease".
This was a particularly extensive and in-depth investigation, researching "147 original investigations and reviews of metabolic studies, epidemiologic studies, and dietary intervention trials of diet and CHD".
Its conclusions:"Substantial evidence indicates that diets using nonhydrogenated unsaturated fats as the predominant form of dietary fat, whole grains as the main form of carbohydrates, an abundance of fruits and vegetables, and adequate omega-3 fatty acids can offer significant protection against CHD [Coronary Heart Disease]. Such diets, together with regular physical activity, avoidance of smoking, and maintenance of a healthy body weight, may prevent the majority of cardiovascular disease in Western populations."
- Another large study of populations was a major breakthrough in understanding the correlation between the diet of a population and its health. This came to be known as The Mediterranean diet.
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