A new study suggests that consuming high-fiber foods can be beneficial for people who suffered from heart attacks' recovery.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health led by associate professor Eric Rimm followed 4,000 men and women from two different studies who had previously survived their first heart attack. They were given questionnaires to determine their diet during their recovery period. Nine years later, 28 percent of the participants passed away. The majority of them were women.
Analysts looked at the diet plan of the patients, and noticed a pattern - their analysis revealed that those who ate high-fiber meals had a 25 percent lower risk of death compared to those who ate less fiber. Furthermore, the chance of having a deadly heart attack is 13 percent lower than the other group. Most of their high-fiber source is from breakfast cereals.
"High-fiber foods are a key part of a healthy balanced diet, and this study suggests they may have a particular benefit for heart-attack survivors, " the British Heart Foundation's Victoria Taylor told BBC News.
Aside from the breakfast cereals, other sources of high-fiber include fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, grains and pasta. Health experts recommend women eat at least 21 to 25 grams of fiber a day, 30 to 38 grams a day for men.
However, Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of the Women and Heart Disease program at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, warned that patients should not be dependent on fiber for their maintenance. She acknowledged though, in an interview with Healthday News., that the study "gives us another piece of information we can use to advise our heart patients on how to be as healthy as they can be. A diet high in fiber is a good idea."
Further details of the study can be read on the April 29 issue of the British Medical Journal.
