Research

Mixed

Increasing total dietary fibre intake by 7 g/day is associated with a 9% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease.

To lower your risk of heart disease, aim to add roughly 7 grams of fibre to your daily diet. This is roughly equivalent to one extra serving of whole grains, fruit, or vegetables. Start by swapping refined grains for whole grains or adding a piece of fruit to your snacks. Consistency matters more than perfection.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
With each increase of 7 g/day in intake of total fibre, relative risks were 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.88 to 0.94) and 0.91 (0.87 to 0.94) for cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease, respectively.
Diane Threapleton et al. · BMJ · 2013

Why this rating

High-quality evidence from 19 prospective observational studies with dose-response analysis, though observational nature limits causal inference compared to RCTs.

Source

Dietary fibre intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

Diane Threapleton et al. · BMJ · 2013

DOI 10.1136/bmj.f6879

Meta-analysis · 19 studiesCited 748×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →