One simple change in your diet can make a remarkable change in your heart health: Eat more fiber. If you do nothing else to save your heart, by eating more fruits and vegetables high in fiber you can make a huge difference in reducing your risk of heart disease. It could save your life.

Heart Disease Rising

Heart disease takes a terrible toll on our health. Every four minutes, five Americans die of heart disease. And while, in recent years, deaths from heart disease have dropped, our appetite for processed foods, devoid of fiber and beneficial nutrients, are once again contributing to a rise in heart attacks and death from cardiovascular disease. “After four decades of declining deaths from heart disease, we are starting to lose the battle again,” warns Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

When Lloyd-Jones and other researchers analyzed the diets of young and middle-aged adults, they discovered that people between the ages of 20 and 59 who ate the most fiber enjoyed a significantly lower estimated lifetime risk for cardiovascular complications.

"It’s long been known that high-fiber diets can help people lose weight, lower cholesterol and improve hypertension," says Lloyd-Jones. "The results of this study make a lot of sense because weight, cholesterol and hypertension are major determinants of your long-term risk for cardiovascular disease."

"The results (of our study) are pretty amazing," agrees Hongyan Ning, M.D., lead author of the research and a statistical analyst in the department of preventive medicine at Feinberg. In performing the experiment, Ning examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative sample of about 11,000 adults. "Younger (20 to 39 years) and middle-aged (40 to 59 years) adults with the highest fiber intake, compared to those with the lowest fiber intake, showed a statistically significant lower lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease."

Visceral Difference

An important benefit of eating fibrous foods is a reduction in your body’s production of what is called visceral fat, the fat that forms deep in the belly and surrounds your vital organs. This type of fat is more dangerous to health than subcutaneous fat, the fat located just under the skin.

“We know that a higher rate of visceral fat is associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and fatty liver disease,” says Kristen Hairston, M.D., a researcher at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina.

Hairston led a study that found that eating soluble fiber, the type of fiber found in apples, peas, beans, oats, psyllium and citrus fruits, produced substantial reductions in the formation of visceral fat. For every 10 grams of soluble fiber eaten every day, visceral fat dropped by 3.7 percent in five years. And when people incorporated exercise into their lifestyle along with eating more fiber, they lost twice as much fat.

“Our study found that making a few simple changes can have a big health impact,” says Hairston.

Ten grams of soluble fiber is contained in a combination of two small apples, one cup of green peas and half a cup of pinto beans. In Hairston’s study, people had to exercise only two to four times a week for 30 minutes a session to help reduce harmful visceral fat.

Fibrous Diet

Easy ways to add fiber to your diet include:

• Eat a portion of fruit with every meal and snack.
• If you eat grains, eat whole grains which contain more fiber.
• Keep raw vegetables on hand for snacks instead of packaged, processed foods.
• Snack on nuts like almonds, pistachios, pecans and walnuts.
• Add sliced vegetables to sauces and soups.
• Eat beans, lentils or peas as the main course for dinner.
• Add beans to soups.

Kids Need Fiber, Too

Parents should also remember that kids need just as much fiber as adults. “We are all born with ideal cardiovascular health, but right now we are looking at the loss of that health in youth,” observes Lloyd-Jones. Because kids are eating so many processed foods, Lloyd-Jones says, “Their (health) future is bleak.”

According to Lloyd-Jones, “(Kids) are eating too much pizza and not enough whole foods prepared inside the home, which is why their sodium is so high and fruit and vegetable content is so low.” He goes on to say that “…the many pressures on our health are moving in a bad direction.”

Every year, more than 600,000 Americans die of heart disease. To reduce your risk of being part of this epidemic, skip the candy bar and pick up an apple. Your life may depend on it.