Recommendations for Preventing Heart Disease in Women.

Results from a study of more than 84,000 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study indicate that lifestyle and diet can markedly affect a woman's risk of heart disease. Specifically, those women who were not currently smoking; whose weight was appropriate for their height; who engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity for at least half an hour per day, on average; who ate a diet high in cereal fiber, polyunsaturated fat, folate, and fatty acids from fish, and low in trans fats and glycemic load (foods which raise blood glucose levels); and who drank at least half a drink of an alcoholic beverage daily had the lowest risk of heart disease. A vegetarian diet can easily include all of these behaviors with the exception of eating fatty acids from fish. Dietary factors were grouped together in this study so that it is not possible to tell what the effect of not including fish oil in an otherwise healthful diet would be. We suspect that results would not be markedly different if the diet included polyunsaturated fats (like flaxseed oil, canola oil, and soy oil) that can be used by our bodies to produce the same fatty acids found in fish.

Stampfer MJ, Hu FB, Manson JE, et al. 2000.

Primary prevention of coronary heart disease in women through diet and lifestyle. N Engl J Med 343:16-22.