Sunday Oct 20, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Some influential individuals and organizations even though they are only some may have told you that eating a high carbohydrate diet is bad.  A new study published in Nutrition Research and Practice confirms that eating dietary patterns with dairy and carbohydrates can lower the risk of hypertension, which is a precursor to the leading killer heart disease, compared with those who use Western diet full of meat and saturated fat and refined sugars (Note: carbohydrates here are not sugars and they are starchy foods).

J.  Y. Shin and colleagues from Ewha Womans University in Daehyeon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea conducted the study and found "participants in the highest quartile of western pattern scores had significantly higher blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, and triglyceride levels than those in the lowest quartile."

For the study, using factor analysis, researchers identified three dietary patterns, traditional, dairy and carbohydrate and Western dietary patterns used by 11883 participants aged 20 to 64 years of age in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Regardless of age, gender, education, body mass index, income, smoking physical activity, and calorie intake, the Western diet was linked to risk of hypertension, which is also known as high blood pressure.

The dairy and carbohydrate dietary pattern was inversely associated with  serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and after adjustment for all potential factors including age, sex, education, income, BMI, smoking, physical activity and calorie intake, the dietary pattern was also associated with risk of hypertension.

Participants following more closely the traditional dietary pattern ate significantly more fiber, sodium, and antioxidant vitamins than those who followed the diet less closely.

Among those who followed the dairy and carbohydrate pattern, those following the diet more closely had higher intake of fiber, calcium, retinol, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, niacin, and vitamin C and low intake of sodium, compared with those following the diet less closely.

The study concludes "the dairy and carbohydrate pattern may be associated with a reduced risk of hypertension whereas the western pattern may be associated with an increased risk of hypertension among Korean adults."

Dr. Dean Ornish, a noted physician and professor of University of California in San Francisco is running a dietary program to promote a dietary pattern which seems similar to the Korean dairy and carbohydrate pattern.  Dr. Ornish's diet is a mostly plant-based diet with some dairy product allowed, but no meat.  His dietary pattern can reverse coronary heart disease or at least stop progression of the disease every effectively. (JD)