An increase in dietary fiber from grain sources can decrease risk for development of cardiovascular disease in older adults, according to an article in the April 2nd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., M.P.H., and his American colleagues had hypothesized that high fiber consumption from fruit, vegetable, and cereal sources might decrease risk for cardiovascular disease in elderly people.

For the current study, they analyzed data for 3,588 men and women aged 65 years or older who participated in the Cardiovascular Health Study: None of the participants had evidence of cardiovascular disease at baseline, and all provided dietary information using a food frequency questionnaire.

"During 8.6 years mean follow-up, there were 811 incident cardiovascular disease events," the authors reported. After adjustments for variables such as age, sex, diabetes, history of past or present smoking, exercise, alcohol intake, and fruit and vegetable consumption, "... cereal fiber consumption was inversely associated with incident cardiovascular disease events with 21 percent lower risk" for the highest compared with the lowest levels of cereal fiber consumption.

"In similar analyses, neither fruit fiber intake nor vegetable fiber intake were associated with incident cardiovascular disease." In a further analysis, the researchers wrote that dark breads, such as wheat, rye, or pumpernickel were associated with a lower risk of incident disease than other breads or other sources of cereal fiber.

"While the observed difference in risk was not large, it was seen with a fairly modest difference in dietary intake, approximately equal to 2 slices of whole grain bread per day. Compared with medical or surgical interventions, nutritional changes are relatively low risk, low cost, and widely available," the authors noted.

"Given the rapidly growing numbers of elderly adults in industrialized populations, it is increasingly important to examine relationships of diet with cardiovascular events among older adults. Our results suggest that dietary habits may affect cardiovascular risk beyond the earlier development and progression of disease in young adulthood and middle-age, supporting recommendations for increased consumption of dietary fiber from cereal and whole grain sources among older adults," the authors concluded.