Diet and heart: a postscript.

TLDR

A 1956‑66 study of 337 healthy middle‑aged men in London and south‑east England used a seven‑day weighed dietary survey. By 1976, 45 of the 337 men had developed CHD, and the study found that higher energy intake and higher cereal fibre intake were each associated with a lower risk of disease, while refined carbohydrate consumption and the polyunsaturated‑to‑saturated fat ratio showed no significant protective effect.

Abstract

During 1956-66, 337 healthy middle-aged men in London and south-east England participated in a seven-day individual weighed dietary survey. By the end of 1976, 45 of them had developed clinical coronary heart disease (CHD) which showed two main relationships with diet. Men with a high energy intake had a lower rate of disease than the rest, and, independently of this, so did men with a high intake of dietary fibre from cereals. Energy intake reflects physical activity, but the advantage of a diet high in cereal fibre cannot be explained; there was no evidence that the disease was associated with consumption of refined carbohydrates. Fewer cases of CHD developed among men with a relatively high ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids in their diet, but the difference was not statistically significant.