Nov 12 2008
Supplements and heart disease - no effect
How many times have you heard you should take vitamin E, vitamin D, or folic acid to prevent heart disease?
Guess what - new research shows taking these supplements doesn’t decrease your risk of heart disease.
We know that eating a healthy diet that’s primarily fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats (or even better - vegetable protein such as legumes) and healthy types of fat definitely decreases risk of heart disease. But when we try to isolate individual nutrients, such as vitamins or minerals that are the cause of this protective effect we come up short.
The answer lies in eating food, not popping supplements. Do your heart a favor by incorporating these simple changes into your daily lifestyle:
- eat a piece of fruit with every meal
- serve a double portion of vegetables at lunch and dinner
- enjoy legumes as a protein source (vegetarian chili is a great example) instead of meat one or two times per week
- make sure most of the bread, cereal, and grain products (rice, barley, pasta) you choose are whole grains
Check out this delicious two-bean chili recipe from the Michigan Bean Commission: http://www.michiganbean.org/recipes/071.html
They also have a wide variety of other recipes that incorporate legumes. Enjoy!
Lynn,
Do you have any sources for the facts you cite here that would help your readers better evaluate the information? I’m aware that there are many vested interests and conflicting truths about health.
Thanks.
Great question Sarah. Alice Lichtenstein published an article in the Journal of Lipid Research, November 6 2008 issue, on nutrition supplements and cardiovascular disease. She notes that there is insufficient data to recommend the routine use of supplements to prevent or treat CVD.
I prefer to recommend that we get our nutrients as much as possible from whole foods, especially until we have sufficient research to prove that taking supplements is truly beneficial.