"Polymeal" - Alcohol, chocolate, garlic, and nuts preventing heart disease?

There are at least two problems that underpin the drawing of the conclusions. First and foremost, the assumption of reduction in CVD as a result of consuming these items is highly suspect!

• Wine drinking is correlated with CVD reduction. (See our review of this topic for further information). What this means is that certain populations who drink more wine have less heart disease. But this could be due to other factors - maybe most wine drinkers are less stressed, leading to less CVD...

• Chocolate does temporarly reduce blood pressure, but no one knows whether its other ingredients contribute to cardiovascular health (especially the large amount of saturated fat it contains)

• Consuming fruit and vegetables does improve one's chances to avoid CVD (see our writeup for more information). This is the one exception; there is evidence to show (De Lorgeril and co-workers, Circulation v 99, p 779, 1999) that indeed a switch to a Mediterranean style diet actually reduces the risk of heart disease, even though it doesn't impact cholesterol.

• Daily garlic consumption and nut consumption - these are probably healthy foods, but again there is no conclusive evidence that adding them to your diet will prevent CVD.

The other problem is the assumption that one can compound the effect from each of these items. Even if it were true that each item could indeed "prevent" CVD, there is no evidence that they independently impact CVD. For example, it is conceivable that wine and garlic have the same physiological effect - thus consuming either one will have the same effect, and it is not compounded by consuming both.

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Last Modification - December 18, 2004