Fiber, CVD & inflammation
Executive summary
* This week’s note reviews a paper about fiber (total, cereal, vegetable and fruit fiber) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and markers of inflammation.
* The researchers claimed that cereal fiber intake was consistently associated with lower inflammation and cereal fiber intake was associated with lower CVD incidence.
* The claims were false. The claim for cereal fiber intake and markers of inflammation was based on a non-fully adjusted model. The claim for cereal fiber intake and lower CVD incidence was based on both a non-fully adjusted model and a non-statistically significant result.
* There were no relationships between fiber (any type) and CVD incidents in fully adjusted models. The relationships between cereal fiber and inflammatory markers were not consistent in fully adjusted models.
* In Model 2 (not fully adjusted) there was a relationship between three markers of inflammation and cereal fiber (only cereal fiber). The researchers couldn’t explain this. It could be because cereal is invariably fortified and the added nutrients may have been anti-inflammatory, rather than the fiber. Better to get the nutrients from real food, therefore, than have them added to fiber, which made no difference.
* This was a very poor paper.
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