Dietary Patterns Predict Heart Attack Risk
in Middle-aged Men
Hu and colleagues analyzed food frequency questionnaires for 44,875 men and identified two overall dietary patterns: the "prudent" pattern which had higher intakes of vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, fish and poultry; and the "Western" pattern which had higher intakes of red meat, processed meat, refined grains, sweets and desserts, French fries and high-fat dairy products. Cases of nonfatal myocardial infarction and fatal coronary heart disease in the study population were tracked over the eight years of the study and correlated to food consumption data.
After adjustment for age, those in the highest quintile of consumption for the prudent pattern had 0.66 the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) of the lowest quintile, while those in the highest quintile of consumption of the Western pattern had 1.45 times the CVD risk. Because of the extremely low rates of CVD in Greece and Japan, the prudent pattern outlined in the study invites comparison to the Mediterranean and Asians diets, since all three diets provide increased consumption of whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit (Mediterranean countries) and fish. The authors advocate an approach toward disease prevention which looks at overall dietary patterns rather than specific nutrients.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 72, No. 4, 912-921, Oct 2000
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