Adherence to Healthy Eating Matters

A US study of 3 prospective cohorts suggests that greater adherence to various healthy eating patterns was consistently associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The final study sample included 74 930 women in the 1st cohort (mean baseline age, 50.2 years), 90 864 women in the 2nd cohort (mean baseline age, 36.1 years), and 43 339 men in the 3rd cohort (mean baseline age, 53.2 years), respectively. During a total of 5 257 190 person-years of follow-up, 23 366 incident CVD cases were documented (18 092 coronary heart disease [CHD] and 5687 stroke, some individuals were diagnosed as having both CHD and stroke). Comparing the highest with the lowest quintiles, the pooled multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of CVD were 0.83 for Healthy Eating Index–2015 (HEI-2015), 0.83 for Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (AMED), 0.86 for Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index (HPDI), and 0.79 for Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI). In addition, a 25-percentile higher dietary score was associated with 10% to 20% lower risk of CVD (pooled HR, 0.80 for the HEI-2015; 0.90 for the AMED; 0.86 for the HPDI; and 0.81 for the AHEI). These dietary scores were statistically significantly associated with lower risk of both CHD and stroke, although each dietary score represents a unique combination of dietary constituents. In analyses stratified by race/ethnicity and other potential risk factors for CVD, the inverse associations between these scores and risk of CVD were consistent in most subgroups. The findings support that multiple healthy eating patterns can be adapted to individual food traditions and preferences. Source: https://jamanetwork.com/