30% of Heart Attacks Caused by Western Diet
Although this number sounds about right, the interpretation of the results leaves much to be desired. Here are some of the study's details and why I agree with the conclusion but disagree with the methodology.
Here's a brief breakdown of the study:
Published in Circulation, Dr. Salim Yusuf and his colleagues surveyed 16,000 people in 52 countries, and analyzed 5,761 cases of heart attack. The patients and controls filled in a "dietary risk score" questionnaire based on 19 food groups, which contained healthy and unhealthy items and were tweaked to include dietary preferences of each country taking part in the study.
They identified 3 dietary patterns:
- Oriental (high intake of tofu and soy and other sauces): Showed no relationship to heart attacks
- Western (high in fried foods, salty snacks, eggs, and meat): Showed the greatest relationship to heart attacks.
- Prudent (high in fruit and vegetables). Showed an inverse relationship to heart attacks.
One of the hallmarks of Westernized diets is the sky-high intakes of sugar, refined grains, omega-6 oils and otherwise heavily processed and/or fast foods. Why are none of these factors mentioned as part of the Western diet category? Few would argue that fried foods and salty snacks are unhealthy, but to just lump all meats and eggs alongside them is misleading.
This omission leaves much room for misinterpretation. To wit, I checked 4 different news reports on the study and they all used the same narrow definition cited in the study
That's (the Western diet) a diet rich in fried foods, salty snacks, and lots of meat.WCTV, Florida
The findings support evidence that animal fat and junk food can lead to heart attacks"CBC News
The diet typically includes fried foods, read meat and diary products along with loads of salty snacks"Health Jockey
A recently published Canadian study shows that the highly popular Western diet of steak and potatoes doesn't cut it anymore"eCanada Now
In my opinion, there are just too many gaps in this study to draw any conclusion other than high fruit and vegetable intake is good and people who adopt "westernized" lifestyles reap the same detriments regardless of where they live.
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Focus on INTERHEART Mike;I think you'll be impressed with how bad their research was.
ReplyGood post Mike - not sure how so much money could be spent on such a large study and yet include such a woeful oversight. Seems like this guy may have allowed his preconceptions to affect the study design a little. Wouldn't you expect him to have done a fairly thorough review of the literature before embarking on this endeavour. Do you know who funded the study....?
ReplyI'm certainly surprised that eggs were seen as a "bad" aspect of the Western diet -- there's a heck of a lot of nutrients in one little egg; vitamins A, B2, B12, E and iron, zinc and phosphorous in particular. They are high in dietary cholesterol, but there's no evidence suggesting that this affects your blood cholesterol levels.
ReplyThe culprit in eggs is the arachidonic acid (AA) in the yolk. The short version of the explanation is that an overabundance of AA increases inflammation in the body, which is the precursor to heart disease, cancer, Alzheimers and many other diseases.
ReplyWell I guess everything in moderation... I just noted that the Mayo Clinic is going with the one egg a day advice so maybe I've vilified eggs too much since my cholesterol is a little to high. :)
Always an interesting read.
ReplyEverything in moderation!
ReplyGood analysis. While dietary patterns are more important than individual foods, lumping in eggs, meat and fried food does not really tell us much about what is dangerous. Also, this study adds very little to what we already know about the dangers of the Western diet.
ReplyHeart attacks can be often linked to high levels of cholesterol (LDL). Fried food and read meats increase levels of this 'bad' cholesterol thus increasing risk of heart attacks. This goes especially to fast foods in which trans-fats can often be found, which are particularly harmful for humans.
Salty foods increase blood pressure, which increases risk of a heart attack.
There is nothing new in this survey really...
ReplyWhere is the data from the actual study?
ReplyLook up INTERHEART marianne, and you should be able to find the study.
This study doesn't actually find out anything;all it does is create a correlation between "western foods" and patients who've had heart attacks. If you look at the study you'll find that even the way that they go about getting this information is flawed though.
ReplyYou should try reading the complete article. Foods that were found to be predictive (meats, salty snacks and fried foods) were placed into one category, subjectively labelled "Western." Foods that were found to be protective (fruits and veggies) were subjectively labelled "prudent."
The take home message isn't terribly surprising. Eating patterns which include salty snacks and fried foods was related to higher chances of AMI. It is just unfortunate that they chose to label it a Western Diet.
If anyone wants to actually read the whole article before commenting let me know.
-Chris W
ReplyIt is not at all surprising that the Western Diet increases the risk of heart attacks. Just take a look at the amount of saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium and calories in all of the fast foods people consume on a daily basis.
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