A prospective US study suggests that dietary patterns with a higher proinflammatory potential were associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The study included 166,234 women and 43,911 men from 3 cohorts, with 5,291,518 person-years of follow-up. The inflammatory potential of diet was evaluated using a food-based empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) score that was pre-defined based on levels of 3 systemic inflammatory biomarkers. There were 15,837 incident CVD cases documented, including 9,794 coronary heart disease (CHD) cases and 6,174 strokes. In pooled analyses of the 3 cohorts, after adjustment for use of anti-inflammatory medications and CVD risk factors including body mass index, a higher dietary inflammatory potential, as indicated by higher EDIP scores, was associated with an increased risk of CVD (hazard ratio [HR] comparing the highest to lowest quintiles: 1.38), CHD (HR: 1.46), and stroke (HR: 1.28). These associations were consistent across cohorts and between sexes, and they remained significant after further adjustment for other dietary quality indices. In a subset of study participants (n = 33,719), a higher EDIP was associated with a higher circulating profile of proinflammatory biomarkers, lower levels of adiponectin, and an unfavorable blood lipid profile. Inflammation plays a key role in atherosclerosis and thrombosis. Pro-inflammatory diets contain more red meat, processed meat, organ meat, sweetened beverages, and refined carbohydrates, etc.; anti-inflammatory diets are characterized by more green leafy vegetables, dark yellow vegetables, fruits, tea, whole grain, coffee and wine, etc. The findings suggest that the modulation of systemic, vascular, and metabolic inflammation could be an important mechanism linking dietary patterns and CVD risk; reducing the inflammatory potential of the diet may potentially provide an effective strategy for CVD prevention. Source: https://www.jacc.org/
