Health Consequences of What We Eat vs. What We Should Eat
May 1, 2017 less than 1 minute read
SOURCE: Micha R, et al. Association between dietary factors and mortality from heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes in the United States. JAMA 2017;317:912-924.
If you were asked to compile a balance sheet for which foods/nutrients should be maximized vs. minimized, there probably would be few differences from 10 items evaluated by Micha et al seeking a relationship between dietary components and cardiovascular mortality.
The 10 items included in their dietary analyses were fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, unprocessed red meats, processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, polyunsaturated fats, seafood omega-3 fats, and sodium.
Based on 702,308 cardiometabolic deaths in U.S. adults in 2012, these data suggest that almost half of such deaths in men and women were associated with suboptimal intake of critical nutrients. According to these authors, the single largest contributor to cardiometabolic deaths was high intake of sodium, which, of course, has been variously associated (or not) with hypertension and heart failure. Next in the “deficit in the diet” category was nuts/seeds, followed by low seafood omega-3 fats, low vegetables, and low fruits. Consistent with recent health warnings, high intake of processed meats and sugar-sweetened beverages also was identified to be health culprits.
Consequences of suboptimal diet were more dramatic within the demographic communities of African Americans and Hispanics, as well as those with lesser education. Changing dietary intake on a population-wide basis is a challenging task, but perhaps these associations of specific identified nutrient imbalances with adverse cardiovascular outcomes will help us shape that change.
In a recent analysis, the single largest contributor to cardiometabolic deaths was high intake of sodium, which has been variously associated with hypertension and heart failure.
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