Coffee, Red Wine & Leafy Greens – That’s The Ticket On The Health Train

Yahoo News has a report out from researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public  Health studied up to 30 years of dietary data from 210,145 Americans to assess how much certain foods influence our heart disease and stroke risks.

What we have been told and told and are now told again that the keys to heart health may be red wine, coffee and vegetables. Researches found that consuming foods high in antioxidants – leafy greens, yellow veggies, coffee, tea and red wine – were linked to reduced inflammation and heart disease risks.

Diets high in these foods are consistently ranked among the healthiest in the world including the Mediterranean diet, which prioritizes healthy fats and fresh produce over red meat and processed foods, and the Blue Zones diet, modeled after regions around the world where people have the longest, healthiest lives.

On the flip side, they found a diet high in pro-inflammatory ingredients, like processed meat and refined carbs, could increase a person's risk of heart disease by 46% and stroke by 28%. contrast, the study found that participants who ate a lot of anti-inflammatory foods had a lower risk of developing heart disease.

The conclusion - A better knowledge of the health protection provided by different foods and dietary patterns should provide the basis for designing dietary protections against heart disease say study authors..."When choosing foods in our diet, we should indeed beware of their pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory potential."