HONG KONG -- Green tea and stir-fried vegetables are the key to a long life, says a leading cardiologist who claims to have found proof that a Western diet is bad for your heart.
Dr. Woo Kam-sang, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said his research showed that people in China who subsisted on such a traditional diet were less prone to cardiac diseases, while those who moved overseas and started eating Western foods were more at risk.He compared the diets of villagers in Panyu, a town in the southern province of Guangdong that has one of the world's lowest rates of heart disease, with those of Chinese in Hong Kong, Sydney and San Francisco.
His ultrasound tests found that westernized Chinese who had lived abroad for at least 10 years had artery walls one-fifth thicker -- which is considered a good measure of the risk of cardiac problems.
The mainland Chinese eat just under half as much meat and only a tiny fraction of the milk products of their more westernized counterparts, he said. "Hardly any ham, bacon, sausage or scrambled egg is eaten in the typical Panyu breakfast meal."
But they drank far more green tea, which has long been praised as an anti-aging tonic because it contains polyphenol, a nutrient. They also ate more vegetables and beancurd "in contrast to fried chicken or fish fillet" in the West.
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