Gee, Ya Think?

Modern science has finally proven eating your veggies is healthy. Let's give them a big round of applause for catching up with the wisdom our grandmothers, great-grandmothers and great-great grandmothers and that of various ancient healthcare sciences such as Chinese Medicine, Auyrveda and Native American healing.

Veggies Do a Heart Good
06.19.06, 12:00 AM ETMONDAY, June 19 (HealthDay News) --

If you love your arteries, eat yourvegetables.So say researchers who found that mice fed a vegetable-rich diet cuttheir risk for atherosclerosis -- hardening of the arteries -- by 38percent."There is some epidemiological evidence that people who eat a lot offruits and vegetables, probably more than five servings a day, have alower risk of coronary heart disease than people who don't," added ledresearcher Michael Adams, a professor of pathology at Wake ForestUniversity School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, N.C.However, "there are a lot of problems with epidemiological[population-based] studies, a lot of factors that can't be controlledfor," he said. For instance, "those who eat a lot of fruits andvegetables are healthier in other ways," such as exercising more, hesaid.

So, Adams and his team decided to look on the physiological level as tohow vegetable intake might affect blood vessel health.Their study is published in the July issue of the Journal of Nutritionand is funded by food maker General Mills, whose brands include GreenGiant vegetables.Adams' team fed a control group of 53 mice a vegetable-free diet.Another group of 54 mice got the same base diet, but with vegetablesadded to make up 30 percent of the total diet. Vegetables includedfreeze-dried broccoli, peas, green beans, corn and carrots.After 16 weeks, they assessed the animals' health and found those who ate the vegetable-rich diet had lower total cholesterol levels, lowerlevels of the so-called "bad" cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein(LDL) and a 7 percent lower average body weight."The mice who consumed 30 percent of their diet as vegetables developedatherosclerotic plaques that were 38 percent smaller than those of themice who consumed no vegetables," he said.

They didn't track exercise as a variable, but the mice all lived in thesame environment and so probably got about the same amount of activity, Adams said."We looked at the accumulation of a marker of inflammatory activity,"he said. "Inflammation is known to be an integral part of thedevelopment of atherosclerotic plaque." The vegetables may work, he said, by their anti-inflammatory properties, he said. The study is "interesting and encouraging," said Alice Lichtenstein,director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Lab and Gershoff Professor ofNutrition Science and Policy at the U.S. Department of AgricultureHuman Nutrition Research Center, Tufts University, Boston, and chair ofthe nutrition committee for the American Heart Association."The observation has been made in humans that people who eat fruits andvegetables have less coronary artery disease and less heart disease,"she said. But to her knowledge, no one knows the mechanism."

It may be a direct effect, or people eating a lot of fruits andvegetables may have a diet [that is also] healthy in other ways."As for advice, Adams said boosting vegetable and fruit intake is alwayswise. "The average consumption in this country of green and yellowvegetables and of fruits is two to three servings a day. If people justate 2 or 3 more servings a day, odds are they would be much healthierfor it."

For More information: To learn more about nutrition, visit the American Dietetic Association or The American Heart Association.

Posted by: Juliette Aiyana