Quality of Beverage Intake and Cardiometabolic and Kidney Outcomes: Insights From the STANISLAS Cohort

The Beverage Quality Index and risk of cardiometabolic outcomes after a myocardial infarction: A prospective analysis in the Alpha Omega Cohort

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Individual beverages have varying associations with cardiometabolic outcomes, but little is known about overall beverage quality and cardiometabolic risk after myocardial infarction (MI). We created the Beverage Quality Index (BQI) to assess beverage quality and examined its association with cardiometabolic outcomes after MI.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We included 4365 Dutch post-MI patients from the Alpha Omega Cohort, aged 60-80 years. Diet was assessed at baseline (2002-2006) with a 203-item FFQ. The BQI included eight components (coffee, tea, milk, juices, sugar-sweetened beverages, alcohol, added sugar to coffee and tea, and energy from beverages), and ranged from 0 to 80. Multivariable Cox models were used to estimate HRs for the BQI in relation to incident diabetes mellitus (DM), major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), recurrent cardiovascular disease (CVD) and fatal CVD over 3.4 y of follow-up, with follow-up for fatal CVD extended through 2018 (12.4 y). The average BQI was 50.0 ± 12.5. During 3.4 y of follow-up, we identified 186 incident cases of DM, 601 of MACE, 310 of recurrent CVD and 140 of fatal CVD. In multivariable models, a higher BQI (T3 vs. T1) was associated with lower risk of MACE [HR: 0.73 (0.59-0.90)], and recurrent CVD [HR: 0.67 (0.50-0.91)], but not with DM or CVD mortality. After 12.4 y of follow-up, 903 CVD deaths occurred. A significant inverse association with CVD mortality during long-term follow-up was found [HR: 0.81 (0.68-0.96)].

CONCLUSION

Overall beverage intake quality, as assessed by the BQI, may represent an important target for the prevention of recurrent CVD.

The healthy beverage index is not associated with insulin resistance, prediabetes and type 2 diabetes risk in the Rotterdam Study

PURPOSE

Whether beverage quality affects changes in glycaemic traits and type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk is unknown. We examined associations of a previously developed Healthy Beverage Index (HBI) with insulin resistance, and risk of prediabetes and T2D.

METHODS

We included 6769 participants (59% female, 62.0 ± 7.8 years) from the Rotterdam Study cohort free of diabetes at baseline. Diet was assessed using food-frequency questionnaires at baseline. The HBI included 10 components (energy from beverages, meeting fluid requirements, water, coffee and tea, low-fat milk, diet drinks, juices, alcohol, full-fat milk, and sugar-sweetened beverages), with a total score ranging from 0 to 100. A higher score represents a healthier beverage pattern. Data on study outcomes were available from 1993 to 2015. Multivariable linear mixed models and Cox proportional-hazards regression models were used to examine associations of the HBI (per 10 points increment) with two measurements of HOMA-IR (a proxy for insulin resistance), and risk of prediabetes and T2D.

RESULTS

During follow-up, we documented 1139 prediabetes and 784 T2D cases. Mean ± SD of the HBI was 66.8 ± 14.4. Higher HBI score was not associated with HOMA-IR (β: 0.003; 95% CI - 0.007, 0.014), or with risk of prediabetes (HR: 1.01; 95% CI 0.97, 1.06), or T2D (HR: 1.01; 95% CI 0.96, 1.07).

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest no major role for overall beverage intake quality assessed with the HBI in insulin resistance, prediabetes and T2D incidence. The HBI may not be an adequate tool to assess beverage intake quality in our population.

The Use of Healthy Eating Index 2015 and Healthy Beverage Index for Predicting and Modifying Cardiovascular and Renal Outcomes

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

With the wide recognition of the importance of dietary patterns rather than isolated nutrient groups on health outcomes, numerous diet quality indices have been designed to evaluate the overall food intake quality in the last two decades.

RECENT FINDINGS

The newest version of the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), HEI-2015, is a diet quality index that measures adherence to the recommendations of the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. While the key nutrient groups are included in most diet quality indices, differences in other components and the scoring system differentiate HEI. The Healthy Beverage Index (HBI) was recently introduced. Previous literature has confirmed the association of the older versions of HEI with metabolic syndrome, inflammatory markers, and negative health outcomes including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and all-cause mortality. This review presents the existing evidence on the association of HEI-2015 and HBI with health markers and long-term outcome, provides guidance on their use, and identifies persisting challenges such as the development of simple, unified, and objective tools to characterize healthy diets in routine clinical practice.