Harvard Nurses study Update 2023

[Oldvatr]

Healthy Eating Patterns and Risk of Total and Cause-Specific Mortality

This cohort study assesses the association of adherence to 4 healthy eating scores with total and cause-specific mortality among women from the Nurses’ Health Study and men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

jamanetwork.com

This is a large and long term review of dietary intake. we are what we eat.

This update emphasises the dietary patterns that lead to a longer life (apparently)

Your thoughts?

My thoughts - it is solely based on food questionaires. The data collected has been released in the past for independant analysis, and there have been several occasions where the analysis does not seem to support the original conclusions.

 

[Brunneria]

My thoughts - it is solely based on food questionaires. The data collected has been released in the past for independant analysis, and there have been several occasions where the analysis does not seem to support the original conclusions.

Yes indeed.

 

[Oldvatr]

The data was filtered to only look at 4 dietary styles
SAD (aka Eatwell) vs Mediterranean vs Plant based vs an unspecified alternative lifestyle diet.

The Plant based diet is probably WFPB since Boston is the headquarters of that movement, and it had in previous year provided funding for this team.

As with most Harvard reports the full text is paywall protected.

Here s another commentary on the report

Healthy Eating Linked to Lower Risk of Total Mortality

Lower risks of death due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease noted

www.medpagetoday.com

This is a quote from Harvard press release
"All share key components including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, although other components differ across different eating patterns" So here is an instant elephant in the room. It is an extremely selective study. QED

Note AHEI is associated with the Pegan diet which appears to be a vegan version of Paleo

The Pegan Diet: What to Know

The pegan diet is a combination of the popular paleo and vegan diets. It focuses on whole foods that are sustainably raised and limits dairy, gluten, and processed foods.

www.webmd.com

Another bias creeping in.

 

[Oldvatr]

Sadly this report will be used to justify Eatwell as being healthy for all. But I am not sure what the study is using as the Control Group for comparison, i.e. you will live longer than [who?] Presumably than the WHO statistical population. None of the 4 diets supports canivores or dairy eaters, so presumably that will feature in the media too. But that is also not the typical population. But again, doctors and nurses are not exactly typical population either. Maybe thats why they live longer than joe public.

 

[Oldvatr]

Harvard T Chan School who did this report is still headed by Prof Walter Willett who is an ardent vegetarian and WFPB activist (at least he was in 2019). He is apparently Head of Harvard School of Public Health now.