Dietary habits, cardiovascular disease and inflammation.

The following is a review of a very interesting study where researchers analyzed dietary patterns and cardiovascular risk. 7,646 healthy people from Italy were included in the research and three dietary patterns were identified (Centritto F., et al. 2009). One of the patterns was characterized by high intake of olive oil, vegetables, legumes, soups, fruits and fish. This pattern was associated with lower values of glucose, lipids, CRP (an inflammatory marker), blood pressure and individual cardiovascular risk score. The second pattern which was characterized by high intake of pasta, tomato sauce, red meat, animal fats and alcohol was associated with higher values of glucose, lipids, CRP and cardiovascular risk score. A third pattern was characterized by high intake of eggs, processed meat, margarines, butter, sugar and sweets and was also associated with high CRP values and a higher cardiovascular risk similar to that of the second dietary group. The researchers concluded that in a healthy population dietary patterns which included foods considered to be unhealthy were associated with higher level of cardiovascular risk factors, CRP and individual cardiovascular risk and the healthy dietary pattern was associated with lower levels. This study included a lot of people and what is especially interesting is that alcohol, which was a part of one of the dietary patterns, did not provide protection against cardiovascular risk. This provides evidence that if you drink a glass of red wine in the evening, it will not provide protection against cardiovascular disease. According to this study, it is the healthy foods which provide the cardiovascular protection.

Dietary patterns, cardiovascular risk factors and C-reactive protein in a healthy Italian population. Centritto F, Iacoviello L, di Giuseppe R, De Curtis A, Costanzo S, Zito F, Grioni S, Sieri S, Donati MB, de Gaetano G, Di Castelnuovo A; on behalf of Moli-sani Investigators. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2009 Mar 18.