Research
Mixed
Increasing dietary fiber intake improves LDL cholesterol and fasting blood glucose levels in patients with cardiovascular disease or hypertension.
For patients with heart disease or high blood pressure, increasing fiber intake helps lower bad cholesterol (LDL) and improve blood sugar control. This is achieved by simply eating more fiber-rich foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Moderate and low certainty evidence indicated improvements in fasting blood glucose (MD 0.48 mmol/L (95% CI 0.91 to 0.05)) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (MD 0.29 mmol/L (95% CI 0.17 to 0.40)).
Why this rating
Evidence is 'Moderate' for glucose and 'Low' for LDL, but the direction of effect is consistent.
Source
Dietary fibre in hypertension and cardiovascular disease management: systematic review and meta-analyses
Andrew Reynolds et al. · BMC Medicine · 2022
DOI 10.1186/s12916-022-02328-x
Meta-analysis · 15 studiesCited 171×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Increasing dietary fiber intake significantly reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure in adults with hypertension, regardless of concurrent antihypertensive medication use.Strong
- Higher dietary fiber intake is associated with a 25% reduction in all-cause mortality in adults with established cardiovascular disease.Good
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