DIET AND CARDIOVASCULAR-DISEASE RISK REDUCTION - A PLACE FOR FIBER

To obtain an estimate of the possible benefit of dietary fibre on coro nary heart disease (CHD), blood pressure data are now reported togethe r with previously published lipid results. These data allow applicatio n of rite Framingham predictive equation to estimate the possible CHD risk reduction attributable to soluble fibre. Thirty-seven dyslipidemi c men and post-menopausal women were studied in a randomized cross-ove r design on both high soluble and insoluble fibre 4-month metabolic di ets, low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Soluble fibre had no effect on blood pressure but both absolute and relative estimates of risk fo r cardiovascular disease were reduced by comparison with insoluble fib re (absolute risk reduction, 1.26+/-0.32% per 10y, p=0.051; relative r isk reduction, 0.16+/-0.05, p=0.039). The reduction in risk was due to a greater fall in the ratio of total to high density lipoprotein chol esterol (0.41+/-0.12, p=0.010) and was related to the increase in feca l bile acid output (r=0.35, p=0.035). We conclude that incorporation o f high soluble fibre foods into low fat diets may have a small but sig nificant benefit in terms of calculated cardiovascular disease risk re duction resulting from favourable effects on plasma lipids.