Mengna Huang, Kenneth Lo, Jie Li, Matthew Allison, Wen-Chih Wu, Simin Liu
Journal: BMJ nutrition, prevention & health 2021;4(1):195-205
PMID: 34308127
Among major sources of dietary carbohydrates, pasta has long been a staple food in diverse human cultures around the world. Interest in the health effects of pasta on the human body has steadily increased since the 1980s. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between pasta meal intake and long-term risk of developing diabetes or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD, including coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke) in postmenopausal women. This study is a large prospective cohort study of 84, 555 post-menopausal women aged between 50 and 79 years. Results show a significant association between higher intakes of pasta meal and long-term risk of developing stroke and ASCVD, and a suggestive association between higher intakes of pasta meal and long-term risk of developing CHD, while no significant relation was observed between pasta meal intake and risk of developing diabetes. Authors conclude that substituting pasta meal for other commonly consumed starchy foods such as fried potato or white bread may possibly represent a feasible and easy-to-implement method of dietary modification to improve cardiometabolic outcomes.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the association between pasta meal intake and long-term risk of developing diabetes or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD, including coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke) in postmenopausal women.
DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.
SETTING
Women's Health Initiative (WHI) in the USA.
PARTICIPANTS
84 555 postmenopausal women aged 50-79 in 1994, who were free of diabetes, ASCVD and cancer at baseline who were not in the dietary modification trial of the WHI, completed a validated food frequency questionnaire, and were evaluated for incident diabetes and ASCVD outcomes during the follow-up until 2010.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Diabetes and ASCVD.
RESULTS
Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the association (HR) between quartiles of pasta meal consumption (residuals after adjusting for total energy) and the risk of incidence diabetes, CHD, stroke or ASCVD, accounting for potential confounding factors, with testing for linear trend. We then statistically evaluated the effect of substituting white bread or fried potato for pasta meal on disease risk. When comparing the highest to the lowest quartiles of residual pasta meal intake, we observed significantly reduced risk of ASCVD (HR=0.89, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.96, p trend=0.002), stroke (HR=0.84, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.93, p trend=0.001), CHD (HR=0.91, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.00, p trend=0.058) and no significant alteration in diabetes risk (HR=1.02, 95% CI 0.96 to 1.07, p trend=0.328). Replacing white bread or fried potato with pasta meal was statistically associated with decreased risk of stroke and ASCVD.
CONCLUSIONS
Pasta meal intake did not have adverse effects on long-term diabetes risk and may be associated with significant reduced risk of stroke and ASCVD. The potential benefit of substituting pasta meal for other commonly consumed starchy foods on cardiometabolic outcomes warrants further investigation in additional high-quality and large prospective studies of diverse populations.
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
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