SummaryBackgroundLow-risk limits recommended for alcohol consumption vary substantially across different national guidelines. To define thresholds associated with lowest risk for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease, we studied individual-participant data from 599 912 current drinkers without previous cardiovascular disease.MethodsWe did a combined analysis of individual-participant data from three large-scale data sources in 19 high-income countries (the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, EPIC-CVD, and the UK Biobank). We characterised dose–response associations and calculated hazard ratios (HRs) per 100 g per week of alcohol (12·5 units per week) across 83 prospective studies, adjusting at least for study or centre, age, sex, smoking, and diabetes. To be eligible for the analysis, participants had to have information recorded about their alcohol consumption amount and status (ie, non-drinker vs current drinker), plus age, sex, history of diabetes and smoking status, at least 1 year of follow-up after baseline, and no baseline history of cardiovascular disease. The main analyses focused on current drinkers, whose baseline alcohol consumption was categorised into eight predefined groups according to the amount in grams consumed per week. We assessed alcohol consumption in relation to all-cause mortality, total cardiovascular disease, and several cardiovascular disease subtypes. We corrected HRs for estimated long-term variability in alcohol consumption using 152 640 serial alcohol assessments obtained some years apart (median interval 5·6 years [5th–95th percentile 1·04–13·5]) from 71 011 participants from 37 studies.FindingsIn the 599 912 current drinkers included in the analysis, we recorded 40 310 deaths and 39 018 incident cardiovascular disease events during 5·4 million person-years of follow-up. For all-cause mortality, we recorded a positive and curvilinear association with the level of alcohol consumption, with the minimum mortality risk around or below 100 g per week. Alcohol consumption was roughly linearly associated with a higher risk of stroke (HR per 100 g per week higher consumption 1·14, 95% CI, 1·10–1·17), coronary disease excluding myocardial infarction (1·06, 1·00–1·11), heart failure (1·09, 1·03–1·15), fatal hypertensive disease (1·24, 1·15–1·33); and fatal aortic aneurysm (1·15, 1·03–1·28). By contrast, increased alcohol consumption was log-linearly associated with a lower risk of myocardial infarction (HR 0·94, 0·91–0·97). In comparison to those who reported drinking >0–≤100 g per week, those who reported drinking >100–≤200 g per week, >200–≤350 g per week, or >350 g per week had lower life expectancy at age 40 years of approximately 6 months, 1–2 years, or 4–5 years, respectively.InterpretationIn current drinkers of alcohol in high-income countries, the threshold for lowest risk of all-cause mortality was about 100 g/week. For cardiovascular disease subtypes other than myocardial infarction, there were no clear risk thresholds below which lower alcohol consumption stopped being ...

SummaryBackgroundConflicting evidence exists regarding the association between saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and type 2 diabetes. In this longitudinal case-cohort study, we aimed to investigate the prospective associations between objectively measured individual plasma phospholipid SFAs and incident type 2 diabetes in EPIC-InterAct participants.MethodsThe EPIC-InterAct case-cohort study includes 12 403 people with incident type 2 diabetes and a representative subcohort of 16 154 individuals who were selected from a cohort of 340 234 European participants with 3·99 million person-years of follow-up (the EPIC study). Incident type 2 diabetes was ascertained until Dec 31, 2007, by a review of several sources of evidence. Gas chromatography was used to measure the distribution of fatty acids in plasma phospholipids (mol%); samples from people with type 2 diabetes and subcohort participants were processed in a random order by centre, and laboratory staff were masked to participant characteristics. We estimated country-specific hazard ratios (HRs) for associations per SD of each SFA with incident type 2 diabetes using Prentice-weighted Cox regression, which is weighted for case-cohort sampling, and pooled our findings using random-effects meta-analysis.FindingsSFAs accounted for 46% of total plasma phospholipid fatty acids. In adjusted analyses, different individual SFAs were associated with incident type 2 diabetes in opposing directions. Even-chain SFAs that were measured (14:0 [myristic acid], 16:0 [palmitic acid], and 18:0 [stearic acid]) were positively associated with incident type 2 diabetes (HR [95% CI] per SD difference: myristic acid 1·15 [95% CI 1·09–1·22], palmitic acid 1·26 [1·15–1·37], and stearic acid 1·06 [1·00–1·13]). By contrast, measured odd-chain SFAs (15:0 [pentadecanoic acid] and 17:0 [heptadecanoic acid]) were inversely associated with incident type 2 diabetes (HR [95% CI] per 1 SD difference: 0·79 [0·73–0·85] for pentadecanoic acid and 0·67 [0·63–0·71] for heptadecanoic acid), as were measured longer-chain SFAs (20:0 [arachidic acid], 22:0 [behenic acid], 23:0 [tricosanoic acid], and 24:0 [lignoceric acid]), with HRs ranging from 0·72 to 0·81 (95% CIs ranging between 0·61 and 0·92). Our findings were robust to a range of sensitivity analyses.InterpretationDifferent individual plasma phospholipid SFAs were associated with incident type 2 diabetes in opposite directions, which suggests that SFAs are not homogeneous in their effects. Our findings emphasise the importance of the recognition of subtypes of these fatty acids. An improved understanding of differences in sources of individual SFAs from dietary intake versus endogenous metabolism is needed.FundingEU FP6 programme, Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit, Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research, and Cambridge Lipidomics Biomarker Research Initiative.

To further dissect the genetic architecture of colorectal cancer (CRC), we performed whole-genome sequencing of 1,439 cases and 720 controls, imputed discovered sequence variants and Haplotype Reference Consortium panel variants into genome-wide association study data, and tested for association in 34,869 cases and 29,051 controls. Findings were followed up in an additional 23,262 cases and 38,296 controls. We discovered a strongly protective 0.3% frequency variant signal at CHD1 . In a combined meta-analysis of 125,478 individuals, we identified 40 new independent signals at P <5×10 −8 , bringing the number of known independent signals for CRC to approximately 100. New signals implicate lower-frequency variants, Krüppel-like factors, Hedgehog signaling, Hippo-YAP signaling, long noncoding RNAs, somatic drivers, and support a role of immune function. Heritability analyses suggest that CRC risk is highly polygenic, and larger, more comprehensive studies enabling rare variant analysis will improve understanding of underlying biology, and impact personalized screening strategies and drug development.

Background/Objectives Polyphenols are plant secondary metabolites with a large variability in their chemical structure and dietary occurrence that have been associated with some protective effects against several chronic diseases. To date, limited data exist on intake of polyphenols in populations. The current cross-sectional analysis aimed at estimating dietary intakes of all currently known individual polyphenols and total intake per class and subclass, and to identify their main food sources in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Methods Dietary data at baseline were collected using a standardized 24-h dietary recall software administered to 36,037 adult subjects. Dietary data were linked with Phenol-Explorer, a database with data on 502 individual polyphenols in 452 foods and data on polyphenol losses due to cooking and food processing. Results Mean total polyphenol intake was the highest in Aarhus-Denmark (1786 mg/day in men and 1626 mg/day in women) and the lowest in Greece (744 mg/day in men and 584 mg/day in women). When dividing the subjects into three regions, the highest intake of total polyphenols was observed in the UK healthconscious group, followed by non-Mediterranean (non-MED) and MED countries. The main polyphenol contributors were phenolic acids (52.5-56.9 %), except in men from MED countries and in the UK health-conscious group where they were flavonoids (49.1-61.7 %). Coffee, tea, and fruits were the most important food sources of total polyphenols. A total of 437 different individual polyphenols were consumed, including 94 consumed at a level [1 mg/day. The most abundant ones were the caffeoylquinic acids and the proanthocyanidin oligomers and polymers. Conclusion This study describes the large number of dietary individual polyphenols consumed and the high variability of their intakes between European populations, particularly between MED and non-MED countries.

Background Although preliminary evidence suggests that intermittent calorie restriction (ICR) exerts stronger effects on metabolic parameters, which may link obesity and major chronic diseases, compared with continuous calorie restriction (CCR), there is a lack of well-powered intervention studies. Objective We conducted a randomized controlled trial to test whether ICR, operationalized as the “5:2 diet,” has stronger effects on adipose tissue gene expression, anthropometric and body composition measures, and circulating metabolic biomarkers than CCR and a control regimen. Design One hundred and fifty overweight and obese nonsmokers [body mass index (kg/m2) ≥25 to &lt;40, 50% women], aged 35–65 y, were randomly assigned to an ICR group (5 d without energy restriction and 2 d with 75% energy deficit, net weekly energy deficit ∼20%), a CCR group (daily energy deficit ∼20%), or a control group (no advice to restrict energy) and participated in a 12-wk intervention phase, a 12-wk maintenance phase, and a 26-wk follow-up phase. Results Loge relative weight change over the intervention phase was −7.1% ± 0.7% (mean ± SEM) with ICR, −5.2% ± 0.6% with CCR, and −3.3% ± 0.6% with the control regimen (Poverall &lt; 0.001, PICR vs. CCR = 0.053). Despite slightly greater weight loss with ICR than with CCR, there were no significant differences between the groups in the expression of 82 preselected genes in adipose tissue implicated in pathways linking obesity to chronic diseases. At the final follow-up assessment (week 50), weight loss was −5.2% ± 1.2% with ICR, −4.9% ± 1.1% with CCR, and −1.7% ± 0.8% with the control regimen (Poverall = 0.01, PICR vs. CCR = 0.89). These effects were paralleled by proportional changes in visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue volumes. There were no significant differences between ICR and CCR regarding various circulating metabolic biomarkers. Conclusion Our results on the effects of the “5:2 diet” indicate that ICR may be equivalent but not superior to CCR for weight reduction and prevention of metabolic diseases. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02449148.

We aimed to validate genetic variants as instruments for insulin resistance and secretion, to characterize their association with intermediate phenotypes, and to investigate their role in type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk among normal-weight, overweight, and obese individuals. We investigated the association of genetic scores with euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp-and oral glucose tolerance test-based measures of insulin resistance and secretion and a range of metabolic measures in up to 18,565 individuals. We also studied their association with T2D risk among normal-weight, overweight, and obese individuals in up to 8,124 incident T2D cases. The insulin resistance score was associated with lower insulin sensi- While the secretion score had a stronger association with T2D in leaner individuals (P interaction = 0.001), we saw no difference in the association of the insulin resistance score with T2D among BMI or waist strata (P interaction > 0.31). While insulin resistance is often considered secondary to obesity, the association of the insulin resistance score with lower BMI and adiposity and with incident T2D even among individuals of normal weight highlights the role of insulin resistance and ectopic fat distribution in T2D, independently of body size.Type 2 diabetes (T2D) develops when insulin secretion is insufficient to maintain normoglycemia, often in the context of an obesity-induced increase in insulin demand,

IMPORTANCE Soft drinks are frequently consumed, but whether this consumption is associated with mortality risk is unknown and has been understudied in European populations to date. OBJECTIVE To examine the association between total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drink consumption and subsequent total and cause-specific mortality. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This population-based cohort study involved participants (n = 451 743 of the full cohort) in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), an ongoing, large multinational cohort of people from 10 European countries (Denmark,

BackgroundFirst metabolomics studies have indicated that metabolic fingerprints from accessible tissues might be useful to better understand the etiological links between metabolism and cancer. However, there is still a lack of prospective metabolomics studies on pre-diagnostic metabolic alterations and cancer risk.MethodsAssociations between pre-diagnostic levels of 120 circulating metabolites (acylcarnitines, amino acids, biogenic amines, phosphatidylcholines, sphingolipids, and hexoses) and the risks of breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer were evaluated by Cox regression analyses using data of a prospective case-cohort study including 835 incident cancer cases.ResultsThe median follow-up duration was 8.3 years among non-cases and 6.5 years among incident cases of cancer. Higher levels of lysophosphatidylcholines (lysoPCs), and especially lysoPC a C18:0, were consistently related to lower risks of breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer, independent of background factors. In contrast, higher levels of phosphatidylcholine PC ae C30:0 were associated with increased cancer risk. There was no heterogeneity in the observed associations by lag time between blood draw and cancer diagnosis.ConclusionChanges in blood lipid composition precede the diagnosis of common malignancies by several years. Considering the consistency of the present results across three cancer types the observed alterations point to a global metabolic shift in phosphatidylcholine metabolism that may drive tumorigenesis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12916-016-0552-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.