Vex Heart Disease with Veggies

Previously, a number of studies have shown that those who opt for a vegetarian diet are at reduced risk of death from heart disease. Francesca Crowe, from Oxford University (United Kingdom), and colleagues analyzed data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) -- Oxford study of 44,561 subjects from England and Scotland. Of those, 34% ate a vegetarian diet -- defined as a diet that excluded meat and fish -- at baseline, and the majority of vegetarians (76%) were women. During an average follow-up of 11.6 years, there were 1,235 cases of ischemic heart disease, including 1,066 hospital admissions and 169 deaths. The team found vegetarians had a 32% lower risk of ischemic heart disease than nonvegetarians, which remained after adjusting for confounding factors. Based on absolute rates of hospitalization or death, the researchers calculated that the cumulative probability of ischemic heart disease between ages 50 and 70 was 6.8% for nonvegetarians compared with 4.6% for vegetarians. The study authors conclude that: “Consuming a vegetarian diet was associated with lower [ischemic heart disease] risk, a finding that is probably mediated by differences in non-HDL cholesterol, and systolic blood pressure.”