Association between animal source foods consumption and risk of hypertension: a cohort study

Eur J Nutr. 2021 Aug;60(5):2469-2483. doi: 10.1007/s00394-020-02423-w. Epub 2020 Nov 5.

Abstract

Purpose: This study assessed the association between animal source foods (ASF) consumption and hypertension, a recognised risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Adverse effects of red and processed meat (RPM) consumption and beneficial effects of the consumption of dairy products and other ASF have been discovered separately; however, the constrained nature of food intake has been typically ignored. We assessed the effects of substituting RPM and other ASF.

Methods: We followed-up 5394 Chinese adults (age 18-60 years) at baseline using the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 2004 to 2011. Food consumption was assessed using individual-based consecutive 24-h recall and household-based food weighing approaches. Both traditional substitution analysis and substitution analysis based on compositional transformation were used to assess substitution effects.

Results: In total, 1267 participants were newly diagnosed with hypertension during the median follow-up time of 6.81 years (range, 2.97-6.99 years). The traditional substitution analysis found that substituting eggs for RPM was associated with a lower risk of hypertension. The compositional transformation substitution analysis revealed that replacing RPM with any other ASF was associated with a lower risk of hypertension; it implemented substitutions of one or many ASF for RPM; it also revealed different substitution effects of RPM and dairy products, and substituting dairy products for RPM was associated with reduced hypertension risks.

Conclusion: The compositional transformation substitution analysis considers the constrained and relative nature of food consumption. It is a flexible approach to estimating substitution effects using different patterns to obtain personalised estimation effects and provide individualised dietary recommendations.

Keywords: Animal source foods; Compositional transformation substitution analysis; Dairy products; Hypertension; Red and processed meat.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • China / epidemiology
  • Cohort Studies
  • Dairy Products
  • Diet
  • Hypertension* / epidemiology
  • Hypertension* / etiology
  • Meat*
  • Risk Factors