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 "If their overall pattern of eating seems to closely match those
components, they may want to move away from that," said lead
researcher James Shikany, of the University of Alabama at
Birmingham.
About 735,000 people in the U.S. have heart attacks each year,
according to the American Heart Association, and about 120,000 die
as a result.
To prevent heart attacks and heart disease, which is the leading
cause of death for both men and women, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention recommends that people exercise regularly,
maintain a healthy weight and diet, and not smoke.
Previous studies mostly focused on individual foods or parts of the
diet that may be tied to an increased risk of heart disease, but
these days researchers are looking "at overall diet as opposed to a
specific nutrient or a specific food," Shikany told Reuters Health.
For the new study, he and his colleagues used data collected from
17,418 people aged 45 or older from across the U.S.
Based on interviews about food eaten in the past year, researchers
were able to identify five dietary patterns.
One pattern involved a lot of convenience foods that a person would
likely order from a restaurant, such as pasta dishes, pizza, Mexican
food, and Chinese food.
Another pattern involved a lot of plant-based foods, such as
vegetables, fruits, fruit juice, cereal, and beans, as well as fish,
poultry and yogurt.
The "sweets" pattern included a lot of added sugars, desserts,
chocolate, candy, and sweetened breakfast foods.
The "Southern" pattern involved typically Southern food, such as
fried foods, eggs, organ meats, processed meats, sugary drinks and
foods with added fats.
Finally, researchers saw that some people loaded up on beer, wine,
liquor, green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, and salad dressing; they
called this the “alcohol and salad” pattern.
Overall, over about six years of follow-up, there were 536 heart
attacks, including some resulting in death, the researchers reported
in the journal Circulation.
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Among people whose diet fell into the Southern pattern, those whose
food choices most closely the pattern were 37 percent more likely to
have a heart attack during the six years, compared to those whose
choices least closely matched it.
The link remained significant even after the researchers accounted
for factors often involved in heart attack risk like age, race,
education, blood pressure and weight.
The other four dietary patterns were not linked to an increased risk
of heart attack, but Shikany said that doesn't mean they're
heart-healthy.
"I wouldn’t say go ahead and eat all the convenience food you want,"
he said.
Among the limitations of the research is the fact that the data used
in this study had been previously collected for another study.
However, Shikany said there is likely little risk tied to telling
people to try grilled chicken instead of fried chicken every night.
Or, cutting back on sweet teas.
"From what I know about it, it’s much more successful when you give
people options and not suggest eliminating complete groups of food,"
he said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1GwHxg0 Circulation, online August 10, 2015.
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