Food Types and Quality Linked to Mortality

A US prospective cohort study suggested that unhealthy low-carbohydrate-diet and low-fat-diet scores were associated with higher total mortality, whereas healthy low-carbohydrate-diet and low-fat-diet scores were associated with lower total mortality. The study included 37 233 adults 20 years or older (mean age 49.7; 52.6% female) with 24-hour dietary recall data from 1999 to 2014. During 297 768 person-years of follow-up, 4866 total deaths occurred. Overall low-carbohydrate-diet and low-fat-diet scores were not associated with total mortality. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for total mortality per 20-percentile increase in dietary scores were 1.07 for unhealthy low-carbohydrate-diet score, 0.91 for healthy low-carbohydrate-diet (lower amounts of low-quality carbohydrates and higher amounts of plant protein and unsaturated fat) score, 1.06 for unhealthy low-fat-diet score, and 0.89 for healthy low-fat-diet (lower amounts of saturated fat and higher amounts of high-quality carbohydrates and plant protein) score. The associations remained similar in the stratification and sensitivity analyses. The results are in accordance with previous observational studies that reported no association between overall low-carbohydrate diet and health outcomes, and suggest that the associations of low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets with mortality may depend on the quality and food sources of macronutrients. Source: https://jamanetwork.com/