Food intake patterns and cardiovascular disease in different age cohorts: The relevance of food variety

SummaryBackgroundDietary recommendations for healthy food intake are an essential part of preventive strategies, food variety might offer one additional approach.MethodsBetween January 2005 and September 2009, a total of 2548 persons attended a medical outdoor centre for diagnostic and/or therapeutic interventions. To obtain information on their nutrition behaviour, patients were requested to complete a 51-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Frequencies of consumption of food items were reported on a scale between 1 (seldom or never) and 6 (more than once per day). To investigate the impact of nutrition patterns on the probability of cardiovascular event and/or medication we estimated four alternative versions of logistic regressions.ResultsUp to the age-decade 51–60 of years, the majority of the patients reported a moderate to high food consumption variety. A low variety was primarily found in the age decades older than 60 years. Within each age cohort, the predicted probability of cardiovascular events and/or medication was lower for patients with higher food variety. Our parameter estimates indicate that, on average, the consumption of one additional food item reduced the probability of a cardiovascular disease by about 0.5%. Adding overall daily intakes of energy or nutrient contents did not change this result.ConclusionOur study shows that food diversity has a significant impact on the probability to stay healthy.