Low‐carbohydrate diets, low‐fat diets, and mortality in middle‐aged and older people: A prospective cohort study

Abstract

al. Low-carbohydrate diets, low-fat diets, and mortality in middle-aged and older people: A prospective cohort study.

Diet quality and mortality: Epidemiological lessons for prevention

“…In the current issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine, Zhao et al provided new evidence supporting the importance of diet quality in preventing premature deaths, as shown in a large US population of ∼371,000 men and women aged 50-71 years, followed for ∼23 years [6]. Carbohydrate and fat qualities are known to be a key determinant of health outcomes, but in this prospective study, it is shown in the context of both low and high carbohydrate intake.…”

“…The LCD and LFD dietary patterns were defined as "healthy" or "unhealthy" based on a dietary quality score (e.g., taking into account different types of carbohydrate rich-foods, saturated and unsaturated fats, and plant or animal based protein). Overall, the results suggest more favorable associations between LFD and LCD and mortality at healthier versions of both these dietary patterns [6]. Thus, higher quality of both diets was a consistent determinant of better survival.…”

“…Therefore, the study by Zhao et al [6] is of high interest and supports a favorable role of diet quality in both LCD and LFD. The LCD and LFD dietary patterns were defined as "healthy" or "unhealthy" based on a dietary quality score (e.g., taking into account different types of carbohydrate rich-foods, saturated and unsaturated fats, and plant or animal based protein).…”

“…Conversely, healthy LCD and LFD were associated with lower total mortality [8]. In the considerably larger study by Zhao et al [6], overall LCD and unhealthy LCD were both associated with higher mortality, whereas all LFD patterns were associated with lower mortality. However, it is worth noting that both diets were associated with lower mortality if the dietary pattern was healthy with high diet quality, although the healthy LFD showed a greater mortality reduction than the healthy LCD (18% vs. 5% reduction, respectively) [6].…”

“…Thus, higher quality of both diets was a consistent determinant of better survival. If the dietary patterns of the LCD and LFD contained more healthy food sources of carbohydrates, fats, and protein-typically from plantbased foods-the mortality risk was reduced compared with dietary patterns of LCD and LFD that contained more saturated fat, more refined, lowquality carbohydrates, and more animal-based proteins [6].…”