Raw Vegetables & Berries Change Heart Disease Risk

The chromosome 9p21 is a gene that is often times a weak spot in people with heart disease.  In the past, we thought that those who have the weak version of this gene were automatically going to get heart disease.  New breakthroughs in research are now proving that genes like this are not set in stone.  In fact, they can be expressed differently when a person makes healthy lifestyle choices.

Researchers from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, discovered that the 9p21 gene may be altered as a result of changes in diet.  After studying 27,243 people of varying ethnicity, researchers concluded that there was significantly less risk for heart disease amongst people who ate a diet rich in raw vegetables, berries, and fruits.  This tells us that these foods are communicating to this gene in a positive way, influencing it not to cause havoc to the cardiovascular system.  If you know you have a history of heart disease in your family, it might be a good idea to consider adding more raw vegetables, berries, and fruits to your diet.  Pick a variety of these foods to improve your health!

Source:

Ron Do, Changchun Xie, Xiaohe Zhang, Satu Männistö, Kennet Harald, Shofiqul Islam, Swneke D. Bailey, Sumathy Rangarajan, Matthew J. McQueen, Rafael Diaz, Liu Lisheng, Xingyu Wang, Kaisa Silander, Leena Peltonen, Salim Yusuf, Veikko Salomaa, James C. Enge. The Effect of Chromosome 9p21 Variants on Cardiovascular Disease May Be Modified by Dietary Intake: Evidence from a Case/Control and a Prospective Study.  PLoS Medicine  2011 October
Department of Human Genetics, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.