Study Shows One Way Diet May Help Heart

A Mediterranean-type diet may improve heart function by one important measure, a study suggests. Researchers looked at data from a study of twins and heart disease. Men in the study answered questions about what they ate. They also wore portable electrocardiogram machines to measure heart rate variability. This is how much the time between beats varies in everyday life. A more varied heartbeat shows better heart function. Men who ate diets closer to the Mediterranean style had greater heart rate variability. Some of the 276 men in the study were identical twins, who have all the same genes. The other twins were fraternal, with fewer of the same genes. By comparing twins, researchers were able to tie heart rate differences to diet, not just genes. The journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it June 15.