New research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has shown dramatic reductions in heart disease from various diet and lifestyle factors. The study included 84,129 women who were healthy when enrolled in 1980.

The researchers classified several practices as part of lower risk behavior:

• not currently smoking
• body-mass index under 25
  consumption of an average of at least half a drink of an alcoholic beverage per day
• engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (including brisk walking) for at least half an hour per day
• diet high in cereal fiber
• diet high in marine omega-3 fatty acids
• diet high in folate
• diet with a high ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat
  diet low in trans fat
• diet low in glycemic load (which indicates lower blood glucose levels).

Women who qualified for all of these factors (3% of the total population) were found to have a risk factor for heart disease of only 17%, which is a greater than 5-fold reduction. In addition, each of the individual factors was also associated with a reduced risk as well.

New England Journal of Medicine 2000;343:16-22.