Diet quality is linked to death risk
Kathmandu, January 27
Study showed that those who follow healthful low fat and low carb diets have a lower overall death risk.
Researchers from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA, who published their findings in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, found that there was an association between unhealthful low carb and low fat diet scores — indicating adherence to poor quality low fat and low carb diets — and a higher total mortality risk.
On the other hand, better quality low fat and low carb diets were associated with a lower total mortality risk, as per the Medical News Today.
The researchers analyzed the data of 37,233 U.S. adults with a mean age of 49.7 years. The data came from eight cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), from 1999 to 2014.
As per the study, in total, the follow-up period accounted for 297,768 person years. This refers to the amount of follow-up time for all the participants included in the NHANES surveys. During this time, the researchers recorded a total of 4,866 deaths, of which 849 were related to heart disease and 1,068 were related to cancer.
Using the NHANES reports regarding people’s macronutrient consumption, the researchers were able to infer different diet quality types.
Although, the team found no association between overall low carb and low fat diet scores and total mortality risk but they did find an association between unhealthful low carb and low fat diet scores.
“Diet plays an important role in […] public health, and suboptimal diet is estimated as the first leading cause of death and the third leading cause of disability-adjusted life-years lost in the [U.S.],” wrote Dr. Zhilei Shan and his colleagues in their study paper.
