Cross-sectional assessment of nut consumption and obesity, metabolic syndrome and other cardiometabolic risk factors: The PREDIMED study.

Ibarrola-Jurado N, Bulló M, Guasch-Ferré M, et al.

PLoS One. February 2013; 8(2): e57367.

The objective of this study was to evaluate associations between frequency of nut consumption and prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors [obesity, metabolic syndrome (MetS), type-2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia] in a Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk.

Cross-sectional study of 7,210 men and women (mean age, 67 y) were recruited into the PREDIMED study. MetS was defined by the harmonized ATPIII and IDF criteria. Diabetes and hypertension were assessed by clinical diagnosis and dyslipidemia (high triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol, and hypercholesterolemia) by lipid analyses. Nut consumption was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire and categorized as <1, 1-3, and >3 servings/wk. Control of confounding was done with multivariate logistic regression.

Results showed that nut consumption was inversely associated with the prevalence of general obesity, central obesity, MetS, and diabetes in subjects at high cardiovascular risk.