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Rotterdam (pte023/17.12.2004/12:00) - Regularly eating the so-called "Polymeal" , which consists of ingredients that boost the health of the heart and blood vessels, could cut the risk of cardiovascular disease by more than three-quarters, according to researchers. A team led by Oscar Franco, a public health scientist at the University Medical Centre in Rotterdam http://www.erasmusmc.nl/content/englishindex.htm claim that eating fish, garlic, almonds, fruits and vegetables, dark chocolate and drinking a glass of wine could substantially reduce the risk of problems such as heart attacks.
Franco and his colleagues suggest the "Polymeal" as a natural alternative to the "Polypill", a cocktail of six drugs that was proposed in 2003 as a preventive pill. The "Polypill" is meant to cut the risk of heart attack or stroke in people over 55 years old by up to 80 per cent. The results of the research were published in the British Medical Journal http://bmj.bmjjournals.com .
"The point we are trying to make is that it is not only through pills that you can prevent disease," said Franco. "The Polymeal is a natural alternative." According to Franco, by eating the prescribed food within a balanced diet, as well as doing exercise and not smoking, a future of "pills and medicalisation" could be avoided. However, Nicholas Wald, of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at the University of London http://www.mds.gmw.ac.uk/wolfson , who led the work on the "Polypill" concept, told New Scientist that the paper on "Polymeal" should not be taken too seriously. According to Wald, the only things that were sensible in the article were that it focused on fruit and vegetable consumption.
Franco's team came up with the "Polymeal" after searching medical literature for ingredients. They then used mathematical models to analyse the effects that regularly eating certain food could have on cardiovascular health. The models were based on the Framingham study, a long-running heart health study that has followed a population in Massachusetts, US for 46 years. The results suggested that the "Polymeal" could reduce cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks by 76 per cent. Men who eat the meal could boost their total life expectance by 6.6 years, while women could add 4.8 years to their life, according to the study.
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