Healthy childhood diets protect hearts
You're never too young to eat a heart-healthy diet, a new study
finds. Researchers in Finland report that a diet low in saturated fats boosted boys'
cardiovascular health, resulting in lower blood cholesterol and clearer arteries.
The same results weren't seen for girls, but that could change with time, said Dr.
Olli T. Raitakari, an associate professor of clinical physiology at Turku University
and lead author of a report in the Dec. 6 issue of Circulation.
"We plan to continue the study at least until the age of 20 years [the oldest children
are now 16 years of age]," Raitakari said. "Final conclusions are made after that."
The benefits for boys of a diet low in saturated fats were clear. Those fats contribute
to high blood levels of cholesterol, which can lead to deposits that eventually
block arteries. These blockages can cause heart attacks and other cardiac problems.
The study included 1,062 children, half of whose families were instructed to feed
them a diet low in saturated fats starting at 7 months of age. Those parents also
received dietary and lifestyle counseling twice a year.
For example, they were told that the saturated fat content of a diet can be reduced
in a number of ways, such as substituting chicken for red meat, broiling rather
than pan-frying meat, using vegetable oil rather than butter, and using low-fat
milk. Families in the other group got no such advice.
All the families recorded their food intake over four-day periods, twice a year.
Those records showed that the children in the families that got counseling consistently
consumed 2 percent to 3 percent fewer calories than those in the other group. They
also got 2 percent to 3 percent fewer of their calories from saturated fats.
The benefits of those apparently slight differences showed up in tests done when
the children were 11. Ultrasound images of the boys' arteries found those on the
low saturated fat diet were better able to widen, allowing blood to flow more freely.
The difference was small - 9.62 percent wider, compared to 8.36 percent wider in
the ordinary-diet group - but it was statistically significant.
No such difference was found for the girls, however. This relative lack of effect
in females has been seen in some adult studies, Raitakari noted. "The reason for
this is not known, but one explanation could be estrogen," he said. Estrogen, the
female sex hormone, influences the number of receptors for LDL cholesterol, the
"bad" kind that clogs arteries, Raitakari said.
Analysis of the data indicated that the benefits stemmed from eating the lower saturated
fat diet earlier in life, rather than later, the researchers said. That analysis
"suggests the importance of early and long-term cholesterol control in influencing
vascular function," Raitakari said.
"I need to emphasize that we used a fat-modified diet in our study, not a low-fat
diet," Raitakari said. "Children need dietary fat for normal development. But we
believe that adopting a diet with low amounts of saturated fats right after weaning
would be a good idea that would help maintain healthy arteries in the long run."
The report is the latest in a series on the study. Previous reports showed that
starting a low saturated-fat diet early in life did not harm the children's growth
or neurological development.
The message is that a healthy diet early in life potentially has long-term benefits,"
said Dr. Robert Eckel, professor of physiology and biophysics at the University
of Colorado, and president of the American Heart Association. "The idea that heart
disease starts in the 50s has been substantially discounted. Saturated fat is always
an enemy to the arteries, at any age."