In a recent study published in Nutrients, researchers assessed the association between diet and health outcomes in UK Biobank (UKBB) participants.
study: Associations between diet and health outcomes in the UK Biobank: a systematic review. Image credit: Yulia Furman/Shutterstock/com
background
Diet is important in the prevention and management of chronic diseases, and dietary patterns are associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer. Understanding the link between nutrition and disease requires a comprehensive approach that considers environmental, genetic, psychological, and behavioral aspects.
Large-scale epidemiological studies powered by big data, such as UKBB, provide valuable insight into the link between diet and disease. However, qualitative and quantitative reviews of previous studies are required to obtain a comprehensive overview of the advances in these data.
About research
In this systematic review, researchers focused on the relationship between diet and non-communicable disease (NCD) incidence and determined the impact of diet on health outcomes in UK Biobank participants aged 40 to 69 years. was evaluated.
The research team searched the Web of Science and PubMed databases for relevant studies published between 2018 and 2022.
Eligible studies assessed the diets of UKBB participants using the 24-hour Oxford WebQ dietary recall, the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), and the Food Preference Questionnaire (FPQ).
Studies have evaluated individual food components, dietary patterns, a priori-determined dietary and health indicators, specific nutrients as putative variables, and known risk factors as environmental variables (e.g. diabetes, cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, etc.).
The researchers excluded studies that focused on dietary intake for deficiency diseases, studies that investigated the effects of diet on cognitive function-related NCDs (such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia), or individual studies that investigated specific diseases. .
They used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) to assess study quality. A summary of effect estimates was collected from multiple studies using hazard ratio (HR) values of maximally adjusted models for the same dietary exposure.
The researchers used the risk estimates to compare the categories with the highest and lowest adherence to healthy eating, focusing on healthy patterns and comparing their risk estimates with unhealthy patterns. did.
For studies that recorded the proportions of different foods, we obtained risk estimates from highest to lowest intake and converted odds ratios (ORs) to HR values.
They used bubble plots to visually depict the effect distribution, and descriptive statistics and boxplots to assess the effect distribution by disease type.
result
Initially, the team identified 346 records, but only 36 were included in the systematic review: 11 related to cardiovascular disease (CVD), 8 related to T2DM, and 10 related to cancer. and 7 related to other non-communicable diseases.
The number of participants in the included studies ranged from 5,000 to 400,000. Almost all studies (except one of moderate quality) were of high quality.
Most studies have focused on specific macronutrients or food categories, and only a handful have investigated dietary patterns. Some studies have found that eating more processed and red meat increases your chances of developing colorectal and lung cancer.
A fish diet and a vegetarian diet can reduce the incidence of cancer. A well-balanced diet with a high diet quality score may reduce the risk of diabetes. Studies have shown that eating dried fruit reduces the risk of breast and lung cancer.
Research results show that by better adhering to a healthy diet (eating a variety of foods including at least three servings of whole grains, vegetables, and fruit a day, and limiting processed meat intake to once a week), you can improve your mental health. showed a slight reduction in the incidence of vascular disease. T2DM, and colorectal cancer.
A healthy diet includes eating more plant-based foods and lowering your intake of processed meats, refined grains, sugary drinks, and foods high in saturated fat, sugar, and sodium.
The study found a positive relationship between processed foods and CVD incidence, but not mortality. Consuming raw vegetables reduces CVD risk, but cooked vegetables do not. High intakes of fiber, sugar, and saturated fat can affect its effectiveness.
However, genetics may be more important than nutrition in avoiding colorectal cancer. A healthy diet, eating red meat, and eating processed meat all had consistent results with respect to CVD, T2DM, and some types of cancer. For a healthy diet, the median HR for colorectal cancer was 0.9, for CVD 0.8, and for T2DM 0.9.
conclusion
Overall, the study results showed that healthy dietary patterns significantly lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
UK Biobank cohort data supports these findings, with higher intakes of whole grains, fruit, vegetables and meat associated with slightly lower rates of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer. To do.
Future research should use multi-omics data and machine learning algorithms to account for the complex interactions between dietary components and their impact on disease risk.
Focusing on a healthy dietary pattern that includes a variety of foods may strengthen the correlation with CVD and T2DM.
