NEW DELHI (PTI): A team of Indian doctors claims it has conducted the world’s first study to show that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can prevent deaths in patients recovering from heart attacks.
Until now studies to determine the effect of altered, low-fat diets On patients recovering from heart attacks have shown as many deaths in the patients who received the modified diets as in those who did not The study by a seven member team of doctors at the heart research laboratory of the medical hospital and research center, Moradabad, near Delhi, has shown that fruit vegetable diet can significantly decrease recurrence of heart attack and mortality.
The beneficial effect of the fruits and vegetables comes from molecules called “antioxidants’ found in these foods, the researchers said presenting their findings in the journal of the American College of nutrition. The study revealed significantly lower mortality and lower recurrence of heart attacks in a group of 200 patients who were asked to consume at least 400 gm of fruits, vegetables and legumes every day for at least 12 weeks.
The patients in this group were advised to cat guava, star goosehery, grapes, apples, sweet lime, banana, lemon, raisins, musk melon, onion and garlic, bitter gourd, and green leafy vegetables.
Although the precise mechanism by which these foods protect the heart is still not understood, the researchers believe that molecules called antioxidants, found in these. Foods protect the heart from further damage. Fruits and vegetables contain vitamins A, Cand E as primary antioxidants which attack a particularly vicious group of molecules called free radicals which are notoriously harmful to body tissues.
Almost all previous studies have shown that fat modified diets can reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease, but showed no effect on patients recovering from previous heart attacks, the scientists Said. “The Indian experiment is the first randomized controlled intervention trial in which the fat modified diet also provided antioxidant foods,” the researchers claim in their report. The study was conducted by director of cardiovascular research Dr.Ram Singh, research associate Mohamed Niaz, and team members Shanti Rastogi, Rakesh Verma, B.Laxmi, Reema Singh, S.Ghosh, and D.Deb. The researchers believe that antioxidants neutralize the free radicals in the body which can destroy the heart muscle; the heart muscle is more vulnerable to damage if body concentrations of the vitamin and oxidants are low.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 19, 1993
