Researchers and colleagues at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health evaluated whether dietary fiber intake was associated with reduced inflammation in older adults and if fiber was inversely associated with cardiovascular disease. Results showed that total fiber, and more specifically cereal fiber but not fruit or vegetable fiber, was consistently associated with lower inflammation and lower CVD events. Until now there was limited data on the link between fiber and inflammation in older adults, who have higher levels of inflammation than younger adults. Research results are published JAMA Network Open.
The study included data from a large and well-characterized prospective cohort of older adults with detailed information on dietary intake, inflammation and CVD events. The study confirmed previously observed associations between dietary fiber and CVD and extended those investigations to include fiber sources, associations of fiber with multiple inflammatory markers, and to examine whether inflammation mediated the association between dietary fiber and CVD.
Among 4125 adults enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study from 1989 to 1990, participants received a food frequency questionnaire administered to individuals without prevalent CVD at enrollment and then visited for the development of CVD (stroke, myocardial infarction, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular death). As of June 2015. Blood samples were evaluated for markers of inflammation.
“Higher intake of dietary fiber is associated with lower CVD risk,” said Rupak Shibakoti, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia Mailman School. A common hypothesis is that higher fiber intake reduces inflammation, which in turn lowers CVD risk. ‘With the results of this study, we are now learning that one particular type of dietary fiber – cereal fiber – but not fruit or vegetable fiber was associated with lower inflammation. With the results of this study we are now learning that cereal fiber has the potential to reduce inflammation and needs to be tested in future interventional studies.”
Although there is evidence to suggest that fiber may have anti-inflammatory effects by improving gut function in general, modulating diet and satiety (eg, reducing fat and total energy intake), and improving lipid and glucose profile metabolism, why cereal fiber But whether vegetable or fruit fiber is associated with lower inflammation is unclear and warrants further investigation, Shibkoti noted. Further, he noted that it is unclear whether cereal fiber or other nutrients in cereal fiber-rich foods are driving the observed relationship.
“Additionally, we learned that inflammation had a minor role in mediating the observed inverse association between cereal fiber and CVD,” Shibkoti observed. “This suggests that factors other than inflammation may play a greater role in the cereal fiber-related reduction in CVD and needs to be examined in future interventions in specific populations.
Co-authors are from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; University of Washington; Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Harvard Medical School; Boston Veterans Health Care; University of Vermont Lerner College of Medicine; San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System; University of California-San Francisco; Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute; New York Academy of Medicine; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and the Harvard Chan School of Public Health,
The research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.