Consuming lignans may lead to a lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), according to new data published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Lignans, the authors explained, are polyphenolic substances found in plant-based foods such as seeds, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, tea and coffee.
Researchers analyzed the associations between lignan consumption and CHD risk in 214,108 men and women in three separate cohorts. All patients had no history of cardiovascular disease or cancer when the study began.
In the analysis, during 5,517,225 person-years of follow-up among the three cohorts, researchers documented 10,244 CHD cases. While 6,283 of those cases were nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), 3,961 CHD cases were fatal.
Both higher total lignan intake and individual lignan consumption were associated with lower risk of total CHD.
“The inverse associations between total lignan intake and CHD risk appeared to be more apparent among participants with higher total fiber intake, although none of the associations achieved statistical significance,” wrote first author Yang Hu, MS, with the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.
Also, in secondary analyses for individual lignans, just the consumption of secoisolariciresinol was strongly linked with lower CHD risk among individuals who ate foods that contained higher levels of fiber, soluble fiber, and insoluble fiber.
“Our findings are in line with the recommendation of adhering to healthy plant-based dietary patterns that emphasize increased consumption of lignan-containing foods such as whole grains, fruits/vegetables, flax seed products, and coffee for the primary prevention of heart disease," the authors wrote. "The role of lignan intake, as well as the microbial processing of plant lignans, in the etiology of CHD deserves further investigation in future research."
Read the full study here.