Scientists from Karolinska Institutet and elsewhere found that the DASH diet is linked to a lower risk of heart failure.
Heart failure happens when the heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to support other organs in your body.
Heart failure is a serious condition, but it does not mean that the heart has stopped beating.
About 6.2 million adults in the United States have heart failure. Heart failure is more common in some areas of the United States than in others.
Previous research has found that following the DASH diet lowers blood pressure, which may prevent the development of heart failure.
Certain medical conditions can increase your risk for heart failure, including high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart attacks, and more.
Unhealthy behaviors can also increase your risk for heart failure, especially for people who have one of the risky health conditions.
DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is a flexible and balanced eating plan that helps create a heart-healthy eating style for life.
The DASH diet focuses on fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, and low-fat dairy and limits red and processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages, and sodium.
In the current study, researchers aimed to examine the association between long-term eating of the DASH diet and the risk of heart failure.
They tested almost 80,000 men and women aged 45-83 years without previous heart failure, heart disease, or cancer at the beginning of 1998.
The team calculated DASH diet scores based on food frequency questionnaires in late 1997 and 2009.
The researchers found people with the greatest adherence to the DASH diet had a lower risk of heart failure compared to those with the lowest adherence.
They also found that replacing 1 serving/day of red and processed meat with DASH diet foods was linked to an 8-12% lower risk of heart failure.
Based on the findings, the team concludes that long-term adherence to the DASH diet and relevant food substitutions within the DASH diet were linked to a lower risk of heart failure.
The research was published in The European Journal of Preventive Cardiology and conducted by Daniel B Ibsen et al.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about the best time to take vitamins to prevent heart disease, and calcium supplements could harm your heart health.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies that blackcurrants can reduce blood sugar after meals and results showing how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer.
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