Plant-based Nutrition ParuchMD

Intensive lifestyle changes have been shown to regress atherosclerosis, improve cardiovascular risk profiles, and decrease angina pectoris and cardiac events. We evaluated the influence of the Multisite Cardiac Lifestyle Intervention Program, an ongoing health insurance-covered lifestyle intervention conducted at our site, on endothelial function and inflammatory markers of atherosclerosis in this pilot study. Twenty-seven participants with coronary artery disease (CAD) and/or risk factors for CAD (nonsmokers, 14 men; mean age 56 years) were enrolled in the experimental group and asked to make changes in diet (10% calories from fat, plant based), engage in moderate exercise (3 hours/week), and practice stress management (1 hour/day)...

A plant-based diet is increasingly becoming recognized as a healthier alternative to a diet laden with meat. Atherosclerosis associated with high dietary intake of meat, fat, and carbohydrates remains the leading cause of mortality in the US. This condition results from progressive damage to the endothelial cells lining the vascular system, including the heart, leading to endothelial dysfunction. In addition to genetic factors associated with endothelial dysfunction, many dietary and other lifestyle factors, such as tobacco use, high meat and fat intake, and oxidative stress, are implicated in atherogenesis...

A 60-year-old man presented with typical angina and had a positive stress test. He declined both drug therapy and invasive testing. Instead, he chose to adopt a whole-food plant-based diet, which consisted primarily of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, potatoes, beans, legumes, and nuts. His symptoms improved rapidly, as well as his weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. Plant-based diets have been associated with improved plasma lipids, diabetes control, coronary artery disease and with a reduction in mortality...

BACKGROUND: The associations between dietary saturated fats and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) remain controversial, but few studies have compared saturated with unsaturated fats and sources of carbohydrates in relation to CHD risk. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to investigate associations of saturated fats compared with unsaturated fats and different sources of carbohydrates in relation to CHD risk. METHODS: We followed 84,628 women (Nurses' Health Study, 1980 to 2010), and 42,908 men (Health Professionals Follow-up Study, 1986 to 2010) who were free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer at baseline...

There is rising evidence of an inverse association between chronic diseases and diets characterized by rich fruit and vegetable consumption. Dietary components may act directly or indirectly on the human genome and modulate multiple processes involved in disease risk and disease progression. However, there is currently no exhaustive resource on the health benefits associated to specific dietary interventions, or a resource covering the broad molecular content of food. Here we present the first release of NutriChem, available at https://cbs...

OBJECTIVE: To examine and quantify the potential dose-response relationship between red and processed meat consumption and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality. DESIGN: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, ISI Web of Knowledge, CINHAL, Scopus, the Cochrane library and reference lists of retrieved articles up to 30 November 2014 without language restrictions. We retrieved prospective cohort studies that reported risk estimates for all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality by red and/or processed meat intake levels...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: There are limited data on the association between dietary information and leukocyte telomere length (LTL), which is considered an indicator of biological aging. In this study, we aimed at determining the association between dietary patterns or consumption of specific foods and LTL in Korean adults. SUBJECT/METHODS: A total of 1958 middle-aged and older Korean adults from a population-based cohort were included in the study. Dietary data were collected from a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire at baseline (June 2001 to January 2003)...

It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that vegetarian diets can provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain health conditions, including atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Well-designed vegetarian diets that may include fortified foods or supplements meet current nutrient recommendations and are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarians must use special care to ensure adequate intake of vitamin B-12...

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the effects of a very low-fat, vegan diet on patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). DESIGN: Single-blind dietary intervention study. SUBJECTS AND STUDY INTERVENTIONS: This study evaluated the influence of a 4-week, very low-fat (approximately 10%), vegan diet on 24 free-living subjects with RA, average age, 56 +/- 11 years old. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Prestudy and poststudy assessment of RA symptomatology was performed by a rheumatologist blind to the study design...

Twenty patients with arthritis and various skin diseases were studied on a metabolic ward during a 2-week period of modified fast followed by a 3-week period of vegetarian diet. During fasting, arthralgia was less intense in many subjects. In some types of skin diseases (pustulosis palmaris et plantaris and atopic eczema) an improvement could be demonstrated during the fast. During the vegan diet, both signs and symptoms returned in most patients, with the exception of some patients with psoriasis who experienced an improvement...

In our previous study, we demonstrated that abstaining from meat, for 1 month, by healthy omnivores (lacto-ovovegetarian model) resulted in a statistical decrease in pancreatic secretion as measured by faecal elastase-1 output. However, no correlation between relative and non-relative changes of energy and nutrient consumption and pancreatic secretion was documented. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to assess the changes of exocrine pancreatic secretion with a more restrictive dietetic modification, by applying a vegan diet...

Several studies have suggested that dietary protein quality may be an important determinant in the natural history of renal disease. We have therefore studied the effects of a predominantly vegetarian diet in eight patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus and an albumin excretion rate (AER) in excess of 30 micrograms min-1. The AER was measured after an 8-week run-in period on the patient's usual diet, and again after 8 weeks of a predominantly vegetarian diet in which the proportion of vegetable protein was supplemented in order to minimize the reduction in total dietary protein intake...

Plant-derived molecules have been highly valued by biomedical researchers and pharmaceutical companies for developing drugs, as they are thought to be optimized during evolution. Therefore, we have collected and compiled a central resource Naturally Occurring Plant-based Anti-cancer Compound-Activity-Target database (NPACT, https://crdd.osdd.net/raghava/npact/) that gathers the information related to experimentally validated plant-derived natural compounds exhibiting anti-cancerous activity (in vitro and in vivo), to complement the other databases...

The disparities in colon cancer incidence between African-Americans and other U.S. ethnic groups are largely unexplained. This report examines associations of various food groups with colon cancer in African-Americans and Caucasians from a case-control study. Incident cases of histologically confirmed colon cancer, age 40-80 years, (n = 613) and matched controls (n = 996) were interviewed in-person to ascertain potential colon cancer risk factors. Diet over the year before diagnosis or interview date was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire adapted to include regional foods...

BACKGROUND: Recent epidemiologic study results showed that subjects who had high intakes of whole-grain foods had lower risks of death and heart disease than did subjects who had low intakes. However, the findings were inconsistent for fruit and vegetable intake. OBJECTIVE: The relations of whole-grain, refined-grain, and fruit and vegetable intakes with the risk of total mortality and the incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and ischemic stroke were studied in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort (baseline: age 45-64 y, n = 15,792)...

BACKGROUND: Consumption of plant foods and dairy and meat products may moderate increases in blood pressure. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to evaluate associations of dietary intake with the 15-y incidence of elevated blood pressure (EBP; ie, incident systolic BP >or= 130 mm Hg, diastolic BP >or= 85 mm Hg, or use of antihypertensive medication). DESIGN: Proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate relations of dietary intake at years 0 and 7 with the 15-y incidence of EBP in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study of 4304 participants aged 18-30 y at baseline...

In the Seven Countries Study, associations between the intake of food-groups and 25-year mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD, defined as sudden coronary death or fatal myocardial infarction) were investigated. Baseline surveys were carried out between 1958 and 1964. A number of individual characteristics were measured in 12,763 middle-aged men belonging to 16 cohorts in seven countries (USA, Finland, The Netherlands, Italy, former Yugoslavia, Greece and Japan). Dietary information was collected in sub-samples using the weighed record method...

A comprehensive ecologic survey of dietary, life-style, and mortality characteristics of 65 counties in rural China showed that diets are substantially richer in foods of plant origin when compared with diets consumed in the more industrialized, Western societies. Mean intakes of animal protein (about one-tenth of the mean intake in the United States as energy percent), total fat (14.5% of energy), and dietary fiber (33.3 g/d) reflected a substantial preference for foods of plant origin. Mean plasma cholesterol concentration, at approximately 3...

Investigators collected and analyzed mortality data for >50 diseases, including 7 different cancers, from 65 counties and 130 villages in rural mainland China. Blood, urine, food samples, and detailed dietary data were collected from 50 adults in each village and analyzed for a variety of nutritional, viral, hormonal, and toxic chemical factors. In rural China, fat intake was less than half that in the United States, and fiber intake was 3 times higher. Animal protein intake was very low, only about 10% of the US intake...

The world's advanced countries have easy access to plentiful high-fat food; ironically, it is this rich diet that produces atherosclerosis. In the world's poorer nations, many people subsist on a primarily plant-based diet, which is far healthier, especially in terms of heart disease. To treat coronary heart disease, a century of scientific investigation has produced a device-driven, risk factor-oriented strategy. Nevertheless, many patients treated with this approach experience progressive disability and death...