---

If you are a vegetarian, take care to eat healthy food if you want to keep your heart healthy and ticking. A new study reveals that not all plant-based foods are healthy and that the unwholesome plant-based food could be as damaging to the heart as the non-plant-based food.

The study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University has been recently published in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The authors of the study assessed the link between plant diets of various qualities and a trio of critical cardiac biomarkers.

The study analysed data from 7708 participants in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, who were aged 20 years or older and had no history of heart disease. The study’s biomarkers were cardiac troponin T, cardiac troponin I –indicators of cardiac muscle damage and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide—associated with heart failure.

The researchers used the US Department of Agriculture’s database to sort each reported food into one of the three categories of – healthy plant-based food, unhealthy plant-based food and animal-based food.

The analysis revealed that adherence to a healthy plant-based diet was associated with a 49% lower likelihood of having elevated levels of cardiac troponin I. People following an unhealthy plant-based diet had a 65% greater chance of elevated levels of cardiac troponin I.

The authors of the study found no strong association with either healthy or unhealthy plant-based foods and cardiac troponin T or N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide.

---

Related Articles

Kerala Tourism holds road shows in Europe

Kerala receives award for ‘Best Honeymoon Destination’

Treating alcoholism

Sobha Hermitage Home Away from Home

Vaajeekarana for procreation

Alcohol The good and the bad