April 18/New York/Modern Medicine -- Researchers from the U.S. and Norway conducted an observational study involving a 20-year cohort of young adults from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Participants were assigned to one of two groups based on their self-reported overall eating habits. Those in the “prudent” group reported higher intakes of fruit, whole grains, milk, nuts and seeds; the “Western” group reported eating more fast food, meat, poultry, pizza and snacks.
Not surprisingly, prudent eaters had a lower risk of incident metabolic syndrome and each of its components than Western eaters. Further, those who did not drink diet beverages also had a lower risk of incident metabolic syndrome than those who did, but associations between diet beverage consumption with the components of cardiometabolic syndrome were variable and less clear.