Cross-sectional associations of dietary patterns characterized by fat type with markers of cardiometabolic health

Background and aims: Individual dietary fats can differentially impact on cardiometa-bolic health. However, their impact within a dietary pattern is not well understood, and warrants comparison with diet quality scores with a dietary fat focus. The aim of this study was to inves-tigate cross-sectional associations between a posteriori dietary patterns characterized by fat type and cardiometabolic health markers, and compare these with two diet quality scores. Methods and results: UK Biobank adults with >= two 24-h dietary assessments and data on cardi-ometabolic health were included (n Z 24 553; mean age: 55.9 y). A posteriori dietary patterns (DP1; DP2) were generated through reduced rank regression (response variables: SFA, MUFA, PUFA). Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) dietary patterns were created. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to investigate asso-ciation s between standardized dietary patterns and cardiometabolic health (total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C and VLDL-C cholesterol, triglycerides, C-reactive protein [CRP], glycated hemoglo-bin [HbA1c]). DP1, positively correlated with SFAs, MUFAs and PUFAs, characterized by higher nuts, seeds and vegetables intake and lower fruits and low-fat yoghurt intake, was associated with lower HDL-C (b:-0.07; 95% CI:-0.10,-0.03) and triglycerides (-0.17;-0.23,-0.10) and higher LDL-C (0.07; 0.01,0.12), CRP (0.01; 0.01, 0.03) and HbA1c (0.16; 0.11,0.21). DP2, positively correlated with SFAs, negatively correlated with PUFAs, characterized by higher butter and high -fat cheese intake and lower nuts, seeds and vegetable intake, was associated with higher total cholesterol (0.10; 0.01, 0.21), VLDL-C (0.05; 0.02, 0.07), triglycerides (0.07; 0.01, 0.13), CRP (0.03; 0.02, 0,04) and HbA1c (0.06; 0.01, 0.11). Higher adherence to MDS and DASH was associ-ated with favorable cardiometabolic health markers concentration. Conclusions: Irrespective of the method used, dietary patterns that encourage healthy fat con -sump tion were associated with favorable cardiometabolic health biomarkers. This study strengthens the evidence for incorporation of dietary fat type into policy and practice guidelines for CVD prevention.(c) 2023 The Italian Diabetes Society, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Ital-ian Society of Human Nutrition and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.