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High-Fiber Diet Cuts Death Risk

Study: Fiber From Whole Grains Reduces Risk of Dying From Heart Disease, Infections, and Lung Disease

By Denise Mann
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Elizabeth Klodas, MD, FACC

Feb. 14, 2011 -- Filling up on fiber -- particularly fiber from whole grains -- may reduce your risk of dying from heart disease, infections, and respiratory diseases, says a new study published online in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Men and women who ate the most dietary fiber were 22% less likely to die from any cause when compared to study participants who ate the least amount of fiber. The protective effect came mainly from cereal fiber in grains, not other sources of fiber such as fruits and vegetables.

“Prior studies have focused on the relationship between fiber intake and cardiovascular disease, but few have examined the link between dietary fiber and mortality,” study researcher Yikyung Park, ScD, a staff scientist at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Md., says in an email. “Our analysis adds to the literature and suggests that dietary fiber is associated with a decreased likelihood of death.”

Fiber-rich diets help lower blood cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels, which may explain why it is considered heart-healthy. Exactly how fiber may reduce risk of death from lung disease and infections is not known, but these diseases tend to be inflammatory in origin, and fiber may have certain anti-inflammatory properties. Heart disease is also believed to be linked to inflammation.

Still, study authors caution, it could be that people who eat more fiber are healthier overall, and that this may be why they are less likely to die from all causes in the new study.

Park and colleagues analyzed data on 219,123 men and 168,999 women who completed a food frequency questionnaire in 1995 and 1996. During nine years of follow-up, 20,126 men and 11,330 women died. Risk of death was lower among study participants who ate the most fiber.

On average, men ate 13 to 29 grams of fiber per day, and women ate 11 to 26 grams. Overall, the risk of death from heart disease, infections, and respiratory diseases was reduced by 24% to 56% in men and by 34% to 59% in women who got the highest amounts of fiber in the study.

People who ate the most fiber tended to have higher education, a self-rated health status of good-excellent, a lower BMI, be physically active, and use menopausal hormone therapy (in women). They were also less likely to smoke, drink alcohol, or eat red meat. Nevertheless, even after adjusting for many of these factors, the association between survival and fiber intake remained significant.

Slideshow: High-Fiber Super Foods

'Big Surprise'

“What is new and important about this study is that it examined multiple causes of death [while] most previous studies of fiber and mortality focused only on heart attack and stroke,” says Lawrence de Koning, PhD, a postdoctoral and clinical chemistry fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. De Koning co-authored an editorial that accompanies the new study.

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