You're never too young to eat a heart-healthy
diet, a new study finds.
Researchers in Finland report that a diet low in saturated
fats boosted boys' cardiovascular health, resulting in
lower blood cholesterol and clearer arteries.
The same results weren't seen for girls, but that could
change with time, said Dr. Olli T. Raitakari, an associate
professor of clinical physiology at Turku University and
lead author of a report in the Dec. 6 issue of Circulation.
"We plan to continue the study at least until the age
of 20 years [the oldest children are now 16 years of age],"
Raitakari said. "Final conclusions are made after that."
The benefits for boys of a diet low in saturated fats
were clear. Those fats contribute to high blood levels
of cholesterol, which can lead to deposits that eventually
block arteries. These blockages can cause heart attacks
and other cardiac problems.
The study included 1,062 children, half of whose families
were instructed to feed them a diet low in saturated fats
starting at 7 months of age. Those parents also received
dietary and lifestyle counseling twice a year.
For example, they were told that the saturated fat content
of a diet can be reduced in a number of ways, such as
substituting chicken for red meat, broiling rather than
pan-frying meat, using vegetable oil rather than butter,
and using low-fat milk. Families in the other group got
no such advice.
All the families recorded their food intake over four-day
periods, twice a year. Those records showed that the children
in the families that got counseling consistently consumed
2 percent to 3 percent fewer calories than those in the
other group. They also got 2 percent to 3 percent fewer
of their calories from saturated fats.
The benefits of those apparently slight differences showed
up in tests done when the children were 11. Ultrasound
images of the boys' arteries found those on the low saturated
fat diet were better able to widen, allowing blood to
flow more freely. The difference was small -- 9.62 percent
wider, compared to 8.36 percent wider in the ordinary-diet
group -- but it was statistically significant.
No such difference was found for the girls, however.
This relative lack of effect in females has been seen
in some adult studies, Raitakari noted. "The reason for
this is not known, but one explanation could be estrogen,"
he said. Estrogen, the female sex hormone, influences
the number of receptors for LDL cholesterol, the "bad"
kind that clogs arteries, Raitakari said.
Analysis of the data indicated that the benefits stemmed
from eating the lower saturated fat diet earlier in life,
rather than later, the researchers said. That analysis
"suggests the importance of early and long-term cholesterol
control in influencing vascular function," Raitakari said.
"I need to emphasize that we used a fat-modified diet
in our study, not a low-fat diet," Raitakari said. "Children
need dietary fat for normal development. But we believe
that adopting a diet with low amounts of saturated fats
right after weaning would be a good idea that would help
maintain healthy arteries in the long run."
The report is the latest in a series on the study. Previous
reports showed that starting a low saturated-fat diet
early in life did not harm the children's growth or neurological
development.
"The message is that a healthy diet early in life potentially
has long-term benefits," said Dr. Robert Eckel, professor
of physiology and biophysics at the University of Colorado,
and president of the American Heart
Association. "The idea that heart disease starts
in the 50s has been substantially discounted. Saturated
fat is always an enemy to the arteries, at any age."
