Dietary patterns, food groups and telomere length: a systematic review of current studies

Abstract

PubMed, Science Direct, The Cochrane Library and Google Scholar databases were electronically searched for all relevant studies, up to November 2015. Among the 17 included studies, 3 and 10 of them were regarding the effect of dietary patterns and various food groups on TL, respectively. Also, in 4 studies, both dietary patterns and different food groups were assessed in relation to TL. Mediterranean dietary pattern was related to longer TL in 3 studies. Five studies indicated beneficial effect of fruits or vegetables on TL. In 7 studies, a reverse association between TL and intake of cereals, processed meat, and fats and oils was reported. Our systematic review supports the health benefits of adherence to Mediterranean diet on TL. Except for the fruits and vegetables, which showed positive association with TL, results were inconsistent for other dietary factors. Also, certain food categories including processed meat, cereals and sugar-sweetened beverages may be associated with shorter TLs. However, additional epidemiological evidence and clinical trials should be considered in future research in order to develop firm conclusions in this regard.

Telómeros Y Calidad De La Dieta: Una Revision Sistematica

“…Estos posibles resultados contradictorios pueden deberse a que la TL está bajo control genético y muestra variación interindividual desde el nacimiento (168). De todos estos artículos incluidos, se encuentra un número limitado de ellos con resultados significativos.…”

“…Además, una gran variedad de alimentos tienen propiedades antioxidantes, así como el ácido fólico, que puede tener un papel importante en la metilación del ADN. Las carnes procesadas podrían inducir mediadores inflamatorios debido a su alto contenido en grasa y proteínas (168).…”

Tracking and Changes in Dietary Patterns of Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study in Southern Brazil

“…In order to minimize this error and avoid misclassification, we opted to analyze the frequency of consumption in tertiles. We highlight that, in spite of its limitations, the FFQ is one of the most applied methods for assessing dietary consumption and has been considered appropriate for this purpose [10,11]. Our findings must be interpreted carefully as the adherence to the "Dieting" DP, for instance, does not indicate lower calorie or nutrients intake, but a lower frequency of consumption of all food groups.…”

“…In order to construct the DPs, we applied the LCA, a type of cluster analysis, which assesses whether there are distinct groups of food consumption habits in the population. The cluster analysis provides a linear score of the frequency of consumption and allocates the individuals inside of different DPs according to this consumption, and, therefore, is appropriate to investigate individual's adherence to specific DPs over time [11,18]. Differently, the principals components analysis generates DPs to explain the maximum variance in a correlation matrix, having the possibility that an individual has a higher adhesion score in more than one DP at the same time [11,18].…”

“…Food consumption is commonly evaluated by estimating total energy intake, micro and macronutrients of separate food-items; in addition, more comprehensive analyses may consider food groups rather than food-items separately, through eating indexes and dietary patterns (DPs) [10,11]. The World Health Organization (WHO) [1] suggested that food intake assessments should be based on food profiles, considering the variety of foods in the daily diet and the possible interaction between nutrients, which can affect its bioavailability.…”