Daily HealthBeat Tip

Tweaking your diet, helping your heart

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A bit more garbanzo beans and olive oil, and a bit less dessert, may be a recipe for a healthier heart. A study finds benefit in substituting some protein such as beans, and monounsaturated fat such as olive oil, for carbs such as sweets.

Dr. Lawrence Appel of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions tested three diets – all in line with the National Institutes of Health’s DASH eating plan, designed to fight high blood pressure.

One was higher in protein, one higher in carbs and one higher in monounsaturated fat.

"Each diet lowered heart disease risk by between 16 and 21 percent. It just turns out that the protein diet and the unsaturated fat diet were a bit better than the carbohydrate diet." (11 seconds)

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the NIH.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December 6, 2005

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