An inflammatory diet can cause heart disease, but anti-inflammatory foods can help protect the heart.
Proinflammatory diets increase cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk but changing over to anti-inflammatory foods can reverse the condition.
Refined grains like white flour, white bread, white rice, and pastries, processed meats like smoked, canned, dry, salted and cured meats, and sugary drinks like soda, powdered drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks, and vitamin enhanced beverages, all increase inflammation in the body, which can lead to heart disease and stroke.
Inflammation lasting over long periods is dangerous as high levels of inflammatory markers in the blood have been found in patients with atherosclerosis.
The condition occurs when the arteries are clogged by fatty deposits, which reduce blood flow, resulting in heart attacks and stroke.
Diet appears to effect inflammation levels but a healthy regimen such as the Mediterranean diet can reduce inflammatory marker levels and so reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
A Mediterranean diet typically includes nuts, seafoods, dairy (in moderation), olive oil, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
The idea that frequently eating proinflammatory foods in the long run results in heart disease or stroke has been overlooked before.
This 32 years follow-up study analysed the dietary intake of 210,000 people, first contacted in 1986.
Dr Jun Li, the study’s first author, said:
“Our study is among the first to link a food-based dietary inflammatory index with long-term risk of cardiovascular disease.
Using an empirically-developed, food-based dietary index to evaluate levels of inflammation associated with dietary intake, we found that dietary patterns with higher inflammatory potential were associated with an increased rate of cardiovascular disease.”
They found that those participants whose diet contained proinflammatory foods were 28 percent more likely to have a stroke and 46 percent more likely to have heart disease.
They suggest eating more fibre and antioxidant-rich foods, which can lower inflammation and fight heart disease.
The list includes: green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, rocket, and cabbage, whole grains, yellow vegetables such as carrots, yellow peppers, pumpkin, and yellow beans, tea, coffee, and wine.
The proinflammatory foods that they should be avoided include sodas, refined grains, fried foods, sugar, and a reduction in processed meat.
Studies show that anti-inflammatory foods such as walnuts will reduce the inflammatory potential linked to CVD risk.
They found that adding nuts to the everyday diet lowers cholesterol, which is a risk factor of heart disease.
Eating 30 to 60 grams walnuts every day over two years showed a remarkable reduction of inflammation levels in 6 inflammatory markers.
When they tested 10 inflammatory markers in the participants, they found that 6 of these had much lower levels.
Dr Montserrant Cofán, the study’s lead author, said:
“The anti-inflammatory effect of long-term consumption of walnuts demonstrated in this study provides novel mechanistic insight for the benefit of walnut consumption on heart disease risk beyond that of cholesterol lowering.”
The study was published in the journal Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Li et al., 2020).
