Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the EPIC cohort
Background: Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre. This study examined the associations of major plant foods, their subtypes and dietary fibre with risk of IHD in EPIC. Methods: We conducted a prospective analysis of 490,311 men and women in ten European countries without a history of myocardial infarction or stroke at recruitment (12.6 years of follow-up, n cases=8504). Dietary intake was assessed using validated questionnaires, calibrated with 24-hour recalls. Multivariable Cox regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of IHD. Results: There was a lower risk of IHD with a higher intake of fruit and vegetables combined (HR per 200 g/day higher intake 0.94, 95% CI:0.90-0.99, P-trend=0.009), and total fruits (per 100g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend=0.021). There was no evidence for a reduced risk for fruit subtypes, except for bananas. Risk was lower with higher intakes of nuts and seeds (per 10g/day 0.90, 0.82-0.98, P-trend=0.020), total fibre (per 10g/day 0.95, 0.85-0.98, P-trend=0.015), fruit and vegetable fibre (per 4g/day 0.95, 0.91-0.99, P-trend=0.022), and fruit fibre (per 2 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend=0.045). No associations were observed between vegetables, vegetables subtypes, legumes, cereals and IHD risk. Conclusions: In this large prospective study, we found some small inverse associations between plant foods and IHD risk, with fruit and vegetables combined being the most strongly inversely associated with risk. Whether these small associations are causal remains unclear. ; Analyses supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MR/M012190/1), Cancer Research UK (C8221/A19170 and 570/A16491), and the Wellcome Trust (Our Planet Our Health, Livestock Environment and People 205212/Z/16/Z). APC is supported by a Cancer Research UK Population Research Fellowship (C60192/A28516) and by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF UK), as part of the Word Cancer Research Fund International grant programme (2019/1953). EPIC-CVD has been supported by the European Union Framework 7 (HEALTH-F2-2012-279233), the European Research Council (268834), the UK Medical Research Council (G0800270 and MR/L003120/1), the British Heart Foundation (SP/09/002 and RG/08/014 and RG13/13/30194), and the UK National Institute of Health Research. The InterAct project was funded by the EU FP6 programme (grant number LSHM_CT_2006_037197), and provided the biomarker data in the subcohort that was used in the current study. The coordination of EPIC is financially supported by the European Commission (DG-SANCO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The national cohorts are supported by Danish Cancer Society (Denmark); Ligue Contre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle Générale de l'Education Nationale, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) (France); German Cancer Aid, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (Germany); the Hellenic Health Foundation (Greece); Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro-AIRC-Italy and National Research Council (Italy); Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS), Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR), LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, Dutch ZON (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF); Health Research Fund (FIS), PI13/00061 to Granada, PI13/01162 to EPIC-Murcia, Regional Governments of Andalucía, Asturias, Basque Country, Murcia (no. 6236) and Navarra, ISCIII RETIC (RD06/0020) (Spain); Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Research Council and County Councils of Skåne and Västerbotten (Sweden); Cancer Research UK (14136 to EPIC-Norfolk; C570/A16491 and C8221/A19170 to EPIC-Oxford), UK Medical Research Council (1000143 to EPIC-Norfolk, MR/M012190/1 to EPIC-Oxford, MC_UU_12015/1 (NJW), MC_UU_12015/5 (NGF), and MC_UU_12015/520, and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Cambridge: Nutrition, Diet, and Lifestyle Research Theme (IS-BRC-1215-20014) to the MRC Epidemiology Unit Cambridge (NJW, NGF). JD holds a British Heart Foundation Chair and an NIHR Senior Investigator Award. KEB holds a Girdlers' New Zealand Health Research Council Fellowship.