Diet: High Fiber to Combat Death and Disease
By RONI CARYN RABIN

A study of almost 400,000 people aged 50 to 71 has found a strong link between a high-fiber diet and a longer life.

Specifically, subjects who ate a diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables (adding up to 29 grams of fiber per day for men, 26 grams for women) were 22 percent less likely to die after nine years than those who ate the least fiber (13 and 11 grams per day), according to the study, in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Those in the high-fiber group were less likely to die of cardiovascular disease, infectious disease and respiratory disease; a high-fiber diet was also associated with fewer cancer deaths in men, though not in women.

The lower death rates were associated with dietary fiber from whole grains, said the lead author, Dr. Yikyung Park, a staff scientist at the National Cancer Institute.

“One of our findings was that fiber has anti-inflammatory properties,” Dr. Park said, adding that grains are also rich in beneficial vitamins, minerals and chemicals.

People who ate more fiber were generally healthier, more educated and more physically active to begin with, the authors noted. But the study adjusted for these differences.

At the start of the study, all participants filled out 124-item food frequency questionnaires. Nine years later, 20,126 men and 11,330 women had died.