Nutrition Research Summary
Once upon a time (and not that long ago) people ate for nourishment and enjoyment. Only a minority of "health nuts" worried about the connection between diet and long-term health. The discovery of a connection between cholesterol and heart attacks in the early 1960s, and then a connection between diet and cholesterol, quickly changed all that. Nutrition science went from a sleepy backwater to a high-profile endeavor. The research gave rise to weekly – and sometimes contradictory – news about what's a healthy diet and what isn't. It's enough to make your head spin and, more importantly, completely confuse you about healthy eating.
Nutrition is every bit as complicated as rocket science. Each of us eats hundreds of different foods, and tens of thousands of different food compounds. They interact with each other, with the body, and with genes in countless as-yet unknown ways. Making firm connections between smoking and health took several decades; making equally firm connections about diet and health is taking just as long. Dueling diet books and conflicting news reports notwithstanding, we actually know quite a bit already about what constitutes a healthy eating pattern.
Why bother with healthy eating? There are several reasons:
- A poor diet unquestionably contributes to the development of chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, osteoporosis, and vision loss. There are also hints that it is a factor in memory loss and Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions.
- A healthy diet, combined with exercise and not smoking, is one of the keys to a longer, healthier life. In a 14-year study of almost 85,000 women, those with healthy eating patterns and other healthy habits were 83% less likely to have had a heart attack or died from heart disease. (Stampfer and colleagues, New England Journal of Medicine, 2000) In this study, a healthy eating pattern included plenty of whole grains and fish, a high intake of the vitamin folic acid, a high ratio of good fats (unsaturated fats) to bad fats (saturated fats), a low intake of trans fats, a low glycemic load, and at least one-half of an alcoholic beverage every day. The "other healthy habits" were a healthy weight, no smoking, and at least 30 minutes of exercise a day.
And then there's the weight issue...