CHICAGO
What we know for sure about diet and what protects the heart is a relatively short list.
That's the conclusion of new research based on an analysis of nearly 200 studies involving millions of people.
Vegetables, nuts and the Mediterranean diet made the grocery list of "good" heart foods. On the "bad" list: starchy carbs such as white bread and the trans fats in many cookies and french fries.
The "question-mark" list includes meat, eggs and milk and many other foods where there is not yet strong evidence about whether they're good or bad for the heart.
"I do research. I also buy groceries for my family every week," said the study's co-author, Dr. Sonia Anand of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who hopes the findings "decrease the confusion around what we should eat and what we shouldn't eat."
The study, appearing in yesterday's Archives of Internal Medicine, doesn't actually read like a shopping list. It's a complicated explanation of how the researchers rated 189 prior studies on the topic.
In short, they used criteria developed by Sir Austin Bradford Hill, the late British scientist who helped establish a link between smoking and lung cancer. When multiple studies on a certain food or diet showed a strong link with better heart health, that put the food or diet at the top of the list.
Dr. JoAnn Manson, the chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, said that the analysis underlines that there's a big gray area and a shorter list of foods with strong links to heart health.
Linda Van Horn, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said that the analysis is more about the strengths and limits of previous studies than advice for consumers.
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