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Review
. 2017 Jun;61(6):10.1002/mnfr.201600707.
doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201600707. Epub 2017 Feb 22.

Association between dietary inflammatory index and inflammatory markers in the HELENA study

Nitin Shivappa  1   2 , James R Hebert  1   2 , Ascensión Marcos  3 , Ligia-Esperanza Diaz  3 , Sonia Gomez  3 , Esther Nova  3 , Nathalie Michels  4 , Aline Arouca  4 , Esther González-Gil  5 , Gottrand Frederic  6 , Marcela González-Gross  7   8 , Manuel J Castillo  9 , Yannis Manios  10 , Mathilde Kersting  11 , Marc J Gunter  12 , Stefaan De Henauw  4 , Kafatos Antonios  13 , Kurt Widhalm  14 , Denes Molnar  15 , Luis Moreno  5 , Inge Huybrechts  12
Affiliations
Review

Association between dietary inflammatory index and inflammatory markers in the HELENA study

Nitin Shivappa et al. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Previous research has shown that diet is associated with low-grade systemic inflammation among adults. However, no study has yet been conducted to explore the association between inflammatory potential of diet and low-grade systemic inflammation among adolescents whose dietary behavior may be different from adults.

Methods and results: We examine the predictive ability of 24-h recall-derived dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores on inflammation among 532 European adolescents in the HELENA cross-sectional study. The DII is a literature-derived dietary index developed to predict inflammation. The DII was calculated per 1000 calories and was tested against C-reactive protein, ILs-1,2,4,10, TNF-α, ICAM, vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM), and IFN-γ. All inflammatory markers had nonnormal distributions and therefore were log transformed. Analyses were performed using multivariable linear regression, adjusting for age, sex, city, BMI, smoking, and physical activity. Pro-inflammatory diet (higher DII scores) was associated with increased levels of various inflammatory markers: TNF-α, IL-1, 2, IFN-γ, and vascular cell adhesion molecule (bDIIt3vs1 = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.25; 0.13, 95% CI 0.001, 0.25; 0.40, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.77; 0.53, 95% CI: 0.05, 1.01; 0.07, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.13, respectively).

Conclusion: These results reinforce the fact that diet, as a whole, plays an important role in modifying inflammation in adolescents.

Keywords: Adolescents; Cross-sectional; Diet; HELENA; Inflammation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sequence of steps in creating the dietary inflammatory index in the HELENA study
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of food groups across tertiles of DII.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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