The vegetarian diet reduces the “bad” cholesterol by 10%, thus reducing the risk for the heart and arteries
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Do you want to protect your heart and arteries from the insults of cholesterol? Take advantage of the summer to focus on the “veg-diet”. And if you are already a vegetarian, continue on this path. In this way you could better control not only LDL cholesterol, the bad one, but also and above all the transporters that tend to keep the dreaded fat inside the blood vessels. We are not talking only about LDL, but also about other potential vehicles of cholesterol, starting from chylomicrons up to very low density lipoproteins such as VLDL.
Also for these metabolic modifications, those who follow a plant-based diet can experience an average reduction in total cholesterol levels of 7%, compared to what they had before being followed on this front. And he can see his LDL cholesterol drop by 10%. Even, you can expect a 14% reduction in levels Apolipoprotein B (ApoB), which is found on cholesterol transporters to the arteries, while it is not present on high-density lipoproteins (HDL), which tend to transport cholesterol out of the blood vessels. To define these effects of vegetarian and vegan nutrition on the heart is a large meta-analysis that appeared on European Heart Journalcoordinated by Ruth Frikke-Schmidt of the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen e Caroline Amalie Koch.
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Under examination the lipid metabolism
The Danish scholars examined 30 randomized studies with a total of 2,372 participants, published between 1982 and 2022. The studies considered evaluated the effect of vegetarian or vegan diets compared to omnivorous diets on total cholesterol, on the “bad” ” or LDL, on triglycerides and on ApoB which favors the transport of fats and cholesterol which are kept in the vessels.
The participants in the 30 studies were divided into random groups: some followed a vegetarian or vegan diet or an omnivorous diet, with meat and dairy products. The duration of the diets ranged from ten days to five years, with an average of 29 weeks. “We have seen significant effects from both vegetarian and vegan diets and from people ranging from normal weight to obese,” Frikke-Schmidt said.
In practice, a vegan or vegetarian diet alone could lead to effects equal to a third of the effect of taking cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins and would result in a 7% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease for those who maintained a plant-based diet for five years. Obviously, for those who need treatment with statins, nutrition does not replace it. But it could prove to be useful in a synergistic key, to offer an even greater benefit.
According to the expert there is another aspect to consider: “Importantly, we found similar results across continents, ages, different ranges of body mass index and between people in different states of health.”
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The advantages of the Mediterranean diet
The meta-analysis did not evaluate the potential benefits of diets directly comparing fish intake versus omnivorous diets due to the lack of specific studies in the meta-analysis. And this makes us think, also because the Mediterranean diet, rich in vegetable foods and fish, is proposed as a positive model in the guidelines for cardiovascular prevention in the scientific literature.
“There is no doubt that a diet very rich in animal foods is also rich in saturated fats, cholesterol and inevitably also in salt, while it is poorer in starch, fiber and antioxidant components and that this entails a greater risk of excess weight loss and chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and cardiovascular disease – he explains Andrea Ghiselli, Director of the first level master’s degree in food science and applied dietetics at Unitelma Sapienza. But the answer is the Mediterranean diet, not the vegan diet, for several reasons. The first is that vegetables have many virtues, but also many defects and can therefore expose you to deficiencies that require supplementation. Then we must remember that vegetable is not necessarily synonymous with healthy and it has been shown that what is defined “Unhealthy Plant Diet “is linked to health events similar to those of a diet high in animal products. The third reason is that among animal products, fishery products and dairy products are not only not linked to health risks, but on the contrary are linked to a dose-dependent protection”.
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Careful choices without exclusions
Therefore, according to the expert, the Mediterranean diet, a food model which, by not excluding any food group, gives more space to vegetable products is the healthiest and most pleasant way to protect health and prevent chronic diseases.
“Recalling that no diet alone can protect health if not accompanied by a healthy lifestyle involving a good level of physical activity and abstention from smoking and the consumption of alcoholic beverages – Ghiselli said”. Furthermore, what emerged at the National Congress of SINU (Italian Society of Human Nutrition) goes along this line, in which the diet for the prevention of cardiovascular risk was presented, which is also able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 48.6%. , linked to current European consumption. The research, developed by the Nutrition, Diabetes and Metabolism Research Unit of the Federico II University of Naples, with the collaboration of independent researchers and others belonging to the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Technologies of the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, received the Barba Prize, as the best scientific research conducted in the field of human nutrition by a researcher enrolled in the SINU under the age of 35.
The study shows that the optimal diet for cardiovascular prevention does not include the exclusion of any food, but mixes them all in the appropriate frequencies and quantities, according to the data available in the literature (fresh vegetables, whole grains and yoghurt every day, legumes and fish up to 4 times a week, eggs, cheese and white meats no more than 3 times a week, red meats, high glycemic index cereals or potatoes no more than once a week, processed meats occasionally).
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