Plant-Based Nutritional Supplementation Attenuates LPS-Induced Low-Grade Systemic Activation

Association of plant-based dietary patterns with depression and anxiety symptoms in Chinese older adults: A nationwide study

BACKGROUND

The associations of plant-based dietary patterns with depression and anxiety symptoms among older adults have not been extensively studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine these associations in Chinese older adults.

METHODS

Data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) was employed in the present study. The simplified food frequency questionnaire was used to assess the overall plant-based diet index (PDI), healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI), and unhealthful plant-based diet index (uPDI). The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-10 (CES-D-10) was used to evaluate depression symptoms, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) was used to assess anxiety symptoms. This study employed logistic regression and linear regression to examine the associations between plant-based dietary patterns and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

RESULTS

This study included 11,971 older adults, with a mean age of 83.23 ± 11.10 years. The results indicated that PDI and hPDI were negative associated with depression symptoms (adjusted β -0.09, 95 % CI -0.11, -0.07) (adjusted β -0.09, 95 % CI -0.11, -0.07) and anxiety symptoms (adjusted β -0.03, 95 % CI -0.04, -0.02) (adjusted β -0.04, 95 % CI -0.05, -0.02), while uPDI was positive associated with depression symptoms (adjusted β 0.09, 95 % CI 0.07, 0.11) and anxiety symptoms (adjusted β 0.04, 95 % CI 0.03, 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings from this study have the potential to promote healthy dietary patterns in older adults, and may have implications for the prevention and management of depression and anxiety in this population.

Plant-based diets and the risk of pancreatic cancer: a large prospective multicenter study

BACKGROUND

Plant-based diets have been recommended for improving health outcomes, including cancer. However, previous studies on plant-based diets and the risk of pancreatic cancer are scarce and fail to consider plant food quality.

OBJECTIVES

We sought to examine the potential associations of 3 plant-based diet indices (PDIs) with the risk of pancreatic cancer in a US population.

METHODS

A population-based cohort of 101,748 US adults was identified from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. The overall PDI, healthful PDI (hPDI), and unhealthful PDI (uPDI) were constructed to qualify adherence to overall, healthy, and less healthy plant-based diets, respectively, with higher scores indicating better adherence. Multivariable Cox regression was used to compute hazard ratios (HRs) for pancreatic cancer incidence. Subgroup analysis was conducted to identify the potential effect modifiers.

RESULTS

Over a mean follow-up of 8.86 years, 421 pancreatic cancer cases occurred. Participants in the highest compared with the lowest quartiles of overall PDI had a lower risk of pancreatic cancer [HR_{quartile 4 versus 1}: 0.74; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57, 0.96; P_trend = 0.023]. A stronger inverse association was observed for hPDI (HR_{quartile 4 versus 1}: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.42, 0.75; P_trend < 0.001). Conversely, uPDI was positively associated with the risk of pancreatic cancer (HR_{quartile 4 versus 1}: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.85; P_trend = 0.012). Subgroup analyses revealed a stronger positive association for uPDI in participants with BMI <25 (HR_{quartile 4 versus 1}: 3.22; 95% CI: 1.56, 6.65) than in those with BMI ≥25 (HR_{quartile 4 versus 1}: 1.08; 95% CI: 0.78, 1.51) (P_interaction = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

In this US population, adherence to a healthy plant-based diet confers a lower risk of pancreatic cancer, whereas adherence to a less healthy plant-based diet confers a higher risk. These findings highlight the importance of considering plant food quality in preventing pancreatic cancer.