Risk Of Atherosclerotic Heart Disease Research Articles

Fiber Feeding—Fad or Finger of Fate?

If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, should women be advised to feed their men heaps of wheat bran, beans, lightly milled cereals, and other fiber-rich foods? Such foods, some authorities suggest, reduce the risk of atherosclerotic heart disease. 1 Dietary fiber, it is claimed, also reduces the risk of colonic cancer 2 by accelerating elimination of carcinogens, which are produced by bacterial action on bile acids. The protective action of fiber may even extend to other diseases—diverticulitis, 3 appendicitis, varicose veins, phlebitis, diabetes 4 —that afflict Western man. If only on the principle that man is what he eats, it could also stiffen his moral fiber! Claims for the salubrious effects of dietary fiber are not an outgrowth of knowledge about its laxative properties. They stem from epidemiologic observations bolstered by historical perspective and recent experimental studies. Epidemiologic observations have been confined largely to regions

Alteration of serum lipids in a group of free-living adult males

Fifty-eight married males at high risk of atherosclerotic heart disease, as indicated by the presence of elevated levels of serum cholesterol or triglyceride, or both, and of abnormal lipoprotein profiles on electrophoresis, completed a 3-month program stressing specific modifications in diet based on the diagnosis of type II. IIb. or IV hyperlipoproteinemia. The lipoprotein levels of these young males were particularly amenable to change despite the variation in adherence to the dietary modifications. A 19% reduction in serum cholesterol was achieved by all groups and a 57% decrease in triglyceride levels was achieved by the type IV group. The major modifications in intake of specific nutrients for the type II and IIb groups involved cholesterol, type and amount of fat, and calories; the major modification for the type IV group was in caloric intake, largely achieved by reduction in the consumption of simple carbohydrate. The ultimate success of this project in reducing the incidence or the onset of atherosclerotic heart disease is still unknown, but the project was quite successful in achieving, in free-living males, highly significant changes in one prominent risk factor, hyperlipoproteinemia.