Assessment of Dietary Patterns Represents a Potential, Yet Variable, Measure of Inflammatory Status: A Review and Update

Abstract

Chronic low-grade, systemic inflammation is a well-characterized risk factor in the development of chronic metabolic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Diet could be an effective strategy for reducing inflammation associated with chronic disease. While anti-inflammatory properties of isolated dietary bioactive and functional foods have been routinely studied, the evaluation of dietary patterns on inflammation warrants further review—especially given the recent inclusion of dietary pattern recommendations into dietary guidelines and policies. Therefore, the objective of this narrative review is to examine current evidence linking diet to low-grade, systemic inflammation within the context of chronic disease. Specifically, we provide an update on the findings from human trials that have characterized anti-inflammatory properties of dietary patterns, defined by various methods and indexes. Given the complexity of interpreting results from dietary pattern analysis, we further present recent evidence on the anti-inflammatory roles of isolated bioactive nutrients and functional foods that are common components of distinct dietary patterns, in addition to considerations for interpreting dietary pattern research, population-specific dietary recommendations, and future studies. Overall, we observe a vast range of variability in the evidence from observational studies that have evaluated the relationships between healthy dietary patterns and inflammatory markers. These studies highlight the need for additional intervention studies with study designs that account for metabolic status, diversity in populations, breadth of inflammatory measurements, fasting vs. postprandial effects of diet, and control of confounding factors (e.g., genotype, microbiome profiles, and dietary adherence) in order to better understand the effect that diet has, as a whole, on inflammation. These strategies will help to strengthen diet recommendations aimed at reducing inflammation and chronic disease risk.

Do Nutritional Factors Interact with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain? A Systematic Review

“…Thus, dietary patterns and overall diet analysis are more robust way of understanding diet-disease relationship [40,41]. For instance, assessment of dietary patterns is suggested as an important indicator of chronic low-level systemic inflammation, which is an associated factor of chronic diseases [42]. Adherence to a healthy dietary pattern, such as the Mediterranean diet, is inversely associated with blood inflammatory biomarker levels [43,44].…”

“…An anti-inflammatory diet with a lower dietary inflammatory index score relates to a higher (i.e., healthier) score on the Healthy Eating Index-2010 [45,46]. Thus, dietary patterns and overall diet is suggested as an effective therapeutic target for chronic diseases [42].…”

Dietary Quality Determined by the Healthy Eating Index-2015 and Biomarkers of Chronic Low-Grade Inflammation: A Cross-Sectional Analysis in Middle-to-Older Aged Adults

“…Dietary intake modulates inflammation and represents a promising therapeutic target to reduce metabolic dysfunction and chronic disease [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. The impact of diet in modulating inflammation is thought to be due to complex interactions between foods and nutrients with bioactive properties [ 12 ].…”

“…Dietary intake modulates inflammation and represents a promising therapeutic target to reduce metabolic dysfunction and chronic disease [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. The impact of diet in modulating inflammation is thought to be due to complex interactions between foods and nutrients with bioactive properties [ 12 ]. Accordingly, studies have highlighted the importance of characterising the relationship between diet and systemic inflammation through the assessment of dietary patterns, and numerous dietary scores have been developed with the aim of synthesising a large amount of dietary information as a single indicator useful for assessing risk factor–disease relationships [ 13 ].…”

Corrigendum to “Assessment of Dietary Patterns Represents a Potential, Yet Variable, Measure of Inflammatory Status: A Review and Update”

“…In the article titled “Assessment of Dietary Patterns Represents a Potential, Yet Variable, Measure of Inflammatory Status: A Review and Update” [1], the authors did not use the most updated acronym when referring to the Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Index (EDII) [2], as it is now referred to as the Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Pattern (EDIP) [3], which is distinct from the energy-adjusted DII® (E-DII).…”