Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the EPIC cohort
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Background: Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre. This study examined the associations of major plant foods, their subtypes and dietary fibre with risk of IHD in EPIC. Methods: We conducted a prospective analysis of 490,311 men and women in ten European countries without a history of myocardial infarction or stroke at recruitment (12.6 years of follow-up, n cases=8504). Dietary intake was assessed using validated questionnaires, calibrated with 24-hour recalls. Multivariable Cox regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of IHD. Results: There was a lower risk of IHD with a higher intake of fruit and vegetables combined (HR per 200 g/day higher intake 0.94, 95% CI:0.90-0.99, P-trend=0.009), and total fruits (per 100g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend=0.021). There was no evidence for a reduced risk for fruit subtypes, except for bananas. Risk was lower with higher intakes of nuts and seeds (per 10g/day 0.90, 0.82-0.98, P-trend=0.020), total fibre (per 10g/day 0.95, 0.85-0.98, P-trend=0.015), fruit and vegetable fibre (per 4g/day 0.95, 0.91-0.99, P-trend=0.022), and fruit fibre (per 2 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend=0.045). No associations were observed between vegetables, vegetables subtypes, legumes, cereals and IHD risk. Conclusions: In this large prospective study, we found some small inverse associations between plant foods and IHD risk, with fruit and vegetables combined being the most strongly inversely associated with risk. Whether these small associations are causal remains unclear.
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European Commission (37197)
Department of Health (via National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)) (NF-SI-0617-10149)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12015/5)
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) (146281)