Fibra dietética y su función en la prevención de enfermedades cardiovasculares en adultos: revisión sistemática cualitativa

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) represent a major public health problem worldwide in terms of morbidity and mortality. The World Health Organization presents some strategies for their prevention, one of them is to adopt a healthy diet, which includes an adequate consumption of dietary fiber, since it has a beneficial role in the reduction of serum LDL cholesterol levels, one of the main factors for the development of CVD (1,2). General Objective: Determine which are the benefits for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in adults with adequate consumption of dietary fiber, through a qualitative systematic review. Methodology: A qualitative systematic review of articles of primary source on dietary fiber and its role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in adults was carried out. Results: Through the first investigation 1,348 articles were registered and applying eligibility criteria, a total of 33 bibliographic sources were used. As a result of the analysis and evaluation of the quality of the scientific evidence (GRADE scale), a total of 4 potential articles were obtained for the preparation of the present qualitative systematic review. Conclusions: Dietary fiber, especially soluble fiber, has the ability to prevent ailments and mortality due to cardiovascular diseases since it is related to the inhibition of cholesterol synthesis and therefore with the decrease in plasma levels of total cholesterol, low density lipoproteins (LDL), without significantly affecting high density lipoproteins (HDL) and triglycerides; thus improving the serum lipid profile due to the participation of fiber on the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme, which is associated with the production of cholesterol.