Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort

Publication: International Journal of Epidemiology

Aurora Perez-Cornago , Francesca L Crowe, Paul N Appleby, Kathryn E Bradbury, Angela M Wood, Marianne Uhre Jakobsen, Laura Johnson, Carlotta Sacerdote, Marinka Steur, Elisabete Weiderpass, Anne Mette L Würtz, Tilman Kühn, Verena Katzke, Antonia Trichopoulou, Anna Karakatsani, Carlo La Vecchia, Giovanna Masala, Rosario Tumino, Salvatore Panico, Ivonne Sluijs, Guri Skeie, Liher Imaz, Dafina Petrova, J Ramón Quirós, Sandra Milena Colorado Yohar, Paula Jakszyn, Olle Melander, Emily Sonestedt, Jonas Andersson, Maria Wennberg, Dagfinn Aune, Elio Riboli, Matthias B Schulze, Emanuele di Angelantonio, Nicholas J Wareham, John Danesh, Nita G Forouhi, Adam S Butterworth, Timothy J Key

3 March 2021


Summary

Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a moderately lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre.

This study found that higher intakes of fruit and vegetables combined, total fruit, bananas, nuts and seeds, total fibre, fruit and vegetable combined fibre and fruit fibre are associated with a lower risk of IHD, of small magnitude.

To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the largest prospective study looking at major plant foods, their subtype, and dietary fibre in relation to IHD risk including incident IHD cases and death from IHD.

As with other observational studies, the associations reported may be subject to residual confounding, and whether these small associations are causal remains unclear.

View publication

© Copyright - NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre 2025