Vegetables Reduce Heart Attack Risk

A new study says that people at high risk for heart disease can reduce that risk by simply eating more fruits and vegetables. Apparently there is a unique gene which predisposes certain people to heart disease by up to thirty percent. So what scientists did was to round up 27,000 of those persons in order to find out if dietary alterations could modify that gene, which they named 9p21. They found that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables reduced their risk of heart attack to 1.0, which is the level of someone with no risk factors or the 9p21 gene.

The results of the study, suggest that as few as two servings a day of raw fruits, and vegetables can negate the effects of the gene significantly enough, but they recommend even more servings to prevent heart disease. The findings support previous ones which have pointed to fruits and vegetables as the best weapons to combat chronic diseases like stroke and cancer. This they say is even more critical if there is a history of heart disease in your family.