Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jan;12(1):115-21.
doi: 10.1017/S1368980008002036. Epub 2008 Apr 15.

Intakes of fruits, vegetables and carbohydrate and the risk of CVD

Kaumudi J Joshipura  1 , Hsin-Chia Hung, Tricia Y Li, Frank B Hu, Eric B Rimm, Meir J Stampfer, Graham Colditz, Walter C Willett
Affiliations

Intakes of fruits, vegetables and carbohydrate and the risk of CVD

Kaumudi J Joshipura et al. Public Health Nutr. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Low-carbohydrate diets could lead to reduced fruit and vegetable intake, which may be protective against CVD. The role of carbohydrate intake in modifying the association between fruits and vegetables and CVD has not been evaluated.

Objective: To evaluate whether carbohydrate intake affects the association between fruits and vegetables and CVD.

Design: We included participants from two large prospective studies, the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals' Follow-Up Study (HPFS). We followed 70 870 eligible NHS females for 16 years and 38 918 eligible HPFS males for 14 years. Diet was assessed from an FFQ updated every 4 years. Our primary outcome was ischaemic CVD (fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke). We used Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate the relationship between fruits and vegetables and ischaemic CVD within groups with low, moderate or high carbohydrate intake.

Results: Fruit intake was strongly related with carbohydrate intake, but vegetables showed a very small correlation. Vegetable intake showed stronger associations with ischaemic CVD among the low carbohydrate group (multivariate risk ratio (RR) = 0.82 for an increment of 3 servings/d; 95 % CI 0.68, 0.99); green leafy vegetables and carotene-rich fruits and vegetables followed a similar pattern. Total fruit intake was associated with a lower risk of ischaemic CVD only among participants with moderate carbohydrate intake (RR = 0.81 comparing extreme quintiles; 95 % CI 0.70, 0.94).

Conclusions: Total vegetables, green leafy vegetables and carotene-rich fruits and vegetables showed stronger associations with ischaemic CVD among the low carbohydrate group. No consistent trends were observed for fruit intake.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: There were no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Atkins RC. Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution. New York: Avon Books; 1998.
    1. Joshipura KJ, Ascherio A, Manson JE, Stampfer MJ, Rimm EB, Speizer FE, Hennekens CH, Spiegelman D, Willett WC. Fruit and vegetable intake in relation to risk of ischemic stroke. JAMA. 1999;282:1233–1239. - PubMed
    1. Joshipura KJ, Hu FB, Manson JE, et al. The effect of fruit and vegetable intake on risk for coronary heart disease. Ann Intern Med. 2001;134:1106–1114. - PubMed
    1. Hung HC, Joshipura KJ, Jiang R, Hu FB, Hunter D, Smith-Warner SA, Colditz GA, Rosner B, Spiegelman D, Willett WC. Fruit and vegetable intake and risk of major chronic disease. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2004;96:1577–1584. - PubMed
    1. Knekt P, Reunanen A, Jarvinen R, Seppanen R, Heliovaara M, Aromaa A. Antioxidant vitamin intake and coronary mortality in a longitudinal population study. Am J Epidemiol. 1994;139:1180–1189. - PubMed

Publication types

Substances