Healthful and Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in U.S. Adults: Prospective Study

Abstract

Background: Despite the potential protective effect of a plant-based diet against chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it remains unknown whether intake of different types of plant foods is beneficial for COPD. Our aims were to determine whether adherence to the healthful version of a plant-based diet (healthful Plant-based Diet Index (hPDI)) is associated with a lower COPD risk, whereas adherence to the unhealthful version (unhealthful Plant-based Diet Index (uPDI)) is associated with a higher COPD risk. Methods: 46,948 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, 73,592 women from the Nurses’ Health Study, and 85,515 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II who completed biennial questionnaires from 1984–2018. We derived diet scores from repeated validated food frequency questionnaires. Among 5,661,994 person-years of follow-up, we documented 2605 validated COPD cases between 1984–2018. Results: After tight control for smoking and other potential confounders, COPD risk was 46% lower among participants with the highest hPDI score compared to those with the lowest score. Conversely, COPD risk was 39% higher among participants with the highest uPDI. Further adjustment for processed meat intake led to similar results. Conclusions: These findings provide further evidence for consuming a diet that emphasizes healthful plant foods to optimize lung health.

Association between Plant-based Diet and Risk of Chronic Diseases and All-Cause Mortality in Centenarians in China: A Cohort Study

“…Pervasive experimental evidence has demonstrated that, in general, a plant-based diet is beneficial to health, largely because of its alignment with global dietary recommendations for chronic disease prevention and management [ 17 , 22 , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] ]. Such a regimen can enhance metabolic regulation, inflammation resistance, and oxidation processes through the consumption of a nourishing plant-based diet replete with fiber-rich and high-quality protein-filled food sources, thereby contributing to the reduction of chronic illnesses [ [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] ].…”

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer an association

“…It has been observed that high protein concentration in the everyday nutrition reduces COPD exacerbations [13]. Moreover; the nutritional status of lung cancer patients has been closely associated with treatment efficiency and survival [14][15][16][17][18]. In our current study we evaluated the chronic obstructive disease of the patients along with their cancer treatment and their nutritional status and metabolic rate, in an effort to identify how these three parameters interact.…”