Coronary heart disease or coronary artery disease occurs when a coronary artery clogs and narrows because of a buildup of plaque.
Plaque is made of fat, cholesterol, and other materials. This plaque builds up inside artery walls and can cause the arteries to narrow and stiffen.
In a study from Gifu University, scientists found that eating a diet rich in rice may benefit heart health in the Japanese population.
The Japanese diet is believed to contribute to longer life expectancy and lower death risk from heart disease, particularly coronary heart disease, in Japanese people compared with people in Western countries.
Rice is the staple food in Japan, and a typical Japanese meal consists of rice as a grain dish along with soup and several other dishes. But there are few scientific findings on rice-based diets and heart disease.
In the current study, the team examined the link between eating rice as grain dishes and heart disease death risk in comparison with eating bread and noodle.
They examined 13,355 men and 15,724 women aged ≥35 years who enrolled in the Takayama Study. Diet intake was assessed using a food questionnaire.
The researchers found that for men, eating rice more frequently was linked to lower heart disease. But no strong association was found in women.
Rice intake was linked to eating more soy products and seaweed and eating less meat and eggs. The team also found neither bread nor noodles were linked to heart disease death risk.
Based on these findings, the team suggests that in Japan, choosing rice as a grain dish is likely to be accompanied by healthier foods as side dishes, and this may help with the prevention of heart disease.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that yogurt may help lower the death risks of heart disease, and natural coconut sugar could help reduce blood pressure and artery stiffness.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that Vitamin D deficiency can increase heart disease risk, and results showing vitamin B6 linked to lower death risk in heart disease.
The research was published in Nutrients and conducted by Keiko Wada et al.
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