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Diet Quality and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

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Book cover Preventive Nutrition

Part of the book series: Nutrition and Health ((NH))

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the biggest cause of death and disability worldwide and diet is well established in reducing the risk of CVD. In recent years the focus of dietary research has shifted from single nutrients and food items to overall diet quality, assessed by hypothesis driven, a priori, approaches which generate diet scores and indexes, and data-driven, a posteriori, approaches such as factor analysis and cluster analysis. This chapter has reviewed the current evidence from prospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the associations between diet quality, measured using a priori and a posteriori approaches, and risk of CVD. Epidemiological evidence shows that high diet quality is associated with a reduced risk of CVD. Adherence to healthy dietary patterns, identified from either diet scores and indexes or factor and cluster analysis, has tended to show an inverse association with CVD risk but the magnitude of protective effects has varied across studies. Consistent evidence from prospective studies and RCTs has provided strong evidence for an inverse association between adherence to a Mediterranean diet or the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and reduced CVD risk. Such dietary patterns may therefore be a relatively low cost tool for public health nutrition interventions for the prevention of CVD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Primary Care and Population Health, University College London Medical School, Royal Free Campus, Rowland Hill Street, London, NW3 2PF, UK

    Janice L. Atkins & S. Goya Wannamethee

Authors
  1. Janice L. Atkins
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  2. S. Goya Wannamethee
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Correspondence to Janice L. Atkins .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Consultants in Consumer Healthcare, Morristown, New Jersey, USA

    Adrianne Bendich

  2. Columbia University Inst. Human Nutrition, New York, New York, USA

    Richard J. Deckelbaum

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Atkins, J.L., Wannamethee, S.G. (2015). Diet Quality and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. In: Bendich, A., Deckelbaum, R. (eds) Preventive Nutrition. Nutrition and Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22431-2_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22431-2_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22430-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22431-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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