Daily wine and chocolate boost life expectancy
Ingredients form part of seven-food 'polymeal' designed to reduce heart disease risk
A daily meal with seven foods -- including wine and chocolate -- could cut heart disease risk by 76 per cent, says a team of Australian researchers.
They estimate that a "polymeal" of wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruit, vegetables, almonds and garlic, eaten every day (or at least four times a week in the case of fish) would increase men's life expectancy by an average of six and a half years and women's by an average of five years.
The findings follow research in 2003 into a so-called "polypill," a combination of drugs taken in one dose, which aimed to reduce heart disease risk by more than 80 per cent.
Team member Dr. Anna Peeters from the Monash University department of epidemiology and preventive medicine in Melbourne, Australia, says her team devised the polymeal as a non-drug alternative to the polypill.
"The polymeal is an effective, non-pharmacological, safe, cheap and tasty alternative to the polypill that will reduce cardiovascular morbidity and increase life expectancy in the general population," she says.
The study also involved researchers at Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.
The team reviewed international literature to determine how much each ingredient cut heart disease, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It then worked out the combined effect of the ingredients on the risk of cardiovascular disease and life expectancy.
Ingredients form part of seven-food 'polymeal' designed to reduce heart disease risk
A daily meal with seven foods -- including wine and chocolate -- could cut heart disease risk by 76 per cent, says a team of Australian researchers.
They estimate that a "polymeal" of wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruit, vegetables, almonds and garlic, eaten every day (or at least four times a week in the case of fish) would increase men's life expectancy by an average of six and a half years and women's by an average of five years.
The findings follow research in 2003 into a so-called "polypill," a combination of drugs taken in one dose, which aimed to reduce heart disease risk by more than 80 per cent.
Team member Dr. Anna Peeters from the Monash University department of epidemiology and preventive medicine in Melbourne, Australia, says her team devised the polymeal as a non-drug alternative to the polypill.
"The polymeal is an effective, non-pharmacological, safe, cheap and tasty alternative to the polypill that will reduce cardiovascular morbidity and increase life expectancy in the general population," she says.
The study also involved researchers at Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.
The team reviewed international literature to determine how much each ingredient cut heart disease, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It then worked out the combined effect of the ingredients on the risk of cardiovascular disease and life expectancy.