Diets high in vegetables, fruits, cereals, and tubers as a protective factor for metabolic syndrome in bank employees

Abstract

BackgroundThe prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is increasing, and its development may be related to westernized diets and working conditions.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of dietary patterns in bank employees with the presence of MetS, considering sociodemographic and behavioral factors as well as laboratory tests.Subjects and methodsThis was a cross-sectional study of 515 bankers. Sociodemographic, occupational, behavioral, and food consumption data were collected. Dietary patterns were determined by principal component analysis with orthogonal varimax rotation.ResultsThe dietary pattern of vegetables, fruits, cereals, and tubers was correlated with the presence of MetS and with waist circumference measurements and triglyceride levels. Individuals in the third and fifth quintiles of the pattern “vegetables, fruits, cereals, and tubers” presented with 3.28 and 2.24 times less chances of MetS when compared to individuals in the first quintile of this dietary pattern (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.13–0.67, and OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.21–0.92, respectively). Subjects over 45 years of age were almost twice as likely to develop MetS (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.01–3.77).ConclusionHealthy eating represented by the dietary pattern “vegetables, fruits, cereals, and tubers” was associated with better health among bank employees, especially when evaluating competing metabolic complications such as MetS.

Dietary Patterns and Metabolic Syndrome in Adult Subjects: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Subsequently, 32 papers were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria as follows: 9 studies considered a different dietary pattern as the comparison reference; 6 studies were carried out on adolescents; 5 studies reported the MetS risk combined with genotype; 4 studies derived the dietary patterns considering nutrients instead of food items; 3 studied reported the correlation instead of risk estimate; one study used a control group (no MetS) as reference; one study was carried out on transplant recipients; and one study was carried out on type 2 diabetes. Therefore, at the end of the selection process, 40 studies were enclosed for the identification of the different dietary patterns in the systematic review and meta-analysis [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58].…”

“…These studies were published between 2007 and 2019. Eight studies were conducted in Korea [24,28,34,36,39,40,43,45], eight in Europe [20,22,31,32,41,44,52,53]; six in Iran [19,46,51,54,55,58]; four in the USA [29,37,49,50]; three in China [25,30,56]; two in Japan [33,35], Brazil [42,57], Samoan Islands [23,48] and Lebanon [21,38]; and one each in Thailand [26], Australia [27] and Mexico [47]. Four were cohort studies [36,50,53,54], one was a case-control study [25] and all others were cross-sectional studies.…”

“…Thirty-one studies used a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ; 43 to 168 items) [19,20,21,22,23,25,26,28,29,31,32,33,34,36,37,38,42,43,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58] while six studies used a 24-h dietary recall [24,27,30,39,40,45] to collect dietary information. In addition, three studies used a diet history questionnaire [35], 3-day food diary [41] and 4 weeks face-to-face dietary history interview [44], respectively.…”

“…The first dietary pattern, named “Healthy”, was characterized by a high loading of vegetables and fruit, poultry, fish, and whole grains. The selected articles labeled this pattern as “Healthy” [22,24,26,27,32,36,43,51,52,54,55,58], “Healthy Japanese” [35], “Health-conscious” [44], “Prudent” [28,31,33,37,46,47,50], “Balanced” [19,25], “Fruit & vegetables” [20,57], “Vegetables, fruits, cereals, and tubers” [42], “Traditional Chinese” [56], “Minimally processed/processed” [21], “Mixed-traditional” [23], “Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes” [29], “Refined Grains & Vegetables” [30], “Traditional” [34,49], “Traditional Lebanese” [38], “Balanced Korean” [39], “Fruit and dairy” [40], “Grains, vegetables, and fish” [45].…”

“…The second dietary pattern, named “Meat/Western”, had a high loading of red meat, processed meat, animal fat, eggs and sweets. The included articles labeled this pattern as “Western” [19,20,28,31,43,46,50,51,53,54,58], “Traditional and protein” [42], “Unhealthy” [36,55], “Animal food” [56], “Common Brazilian meal” [57], “Ultra-processed” [21], “Westernized” [24,32], “Mixed-modern” [23], “High-protein/cholesterol” [25], “Meat” [26,34], “Refined and Processed” [27], “Animal protein” [29], “Organ Meat & Poultry” [30], “Fat, meat and alcohol” [32], “High-fat/Western” [33], “Animal food” [35], “Southern” [37], “High-Protein” [38], “Semi-Western” [39], “Alcohol and meat” [40,45], “Processed foods” [44], “High-protein/fat” [47], “Meat and French fries” [49], “High glycemic index and high-fat” [52].…”