Diet: High Fiber to Combat Death and Disease

By RONI CARYN RABIN
NYT

A study of almost 400,000 people aged 50 to 71 has found a strong link between a high-fiber diet and a longer life.

Specifically, subjects who ate a diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables (adding up to 29 grams of fiber per day for men, 26 grams for women) were 22 percent less likely to die after nine years than those who ate the least fiber (13 and 11 grams per day), according to the study, in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Those in the high-fiber group were less likely to die of cardiovascular disease, infectious disease and respiratory disease; a high-fiber diet was also associated with fewer cancer deaths in men, though not in women.

The lower death rates were associated with dietary fiber from whole grains, said the lead author, Dr. Yikyung Park, a staff scientist at the National Cancer Institute.

(More here.)