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Introduction: Poor diet is among the top risk factors for cardiometabolic disease, which disproportionately burdens South Asians. In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission proposed a Planetary Health Diet (PHD) designed to optimize human and global environmental health. Objective: We examined associations between a novel Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI), that reflects adherence to the EAT-Lancet recommendations, and cardiometabolic risk in a prospective cohort of South Asians in the US. Methods: We included participants from the MASALA study with complete baseline (n=891) and 5-year follow-up (n=735) examinations. The PHDI was comprised of 15 food components with scoring based on the ranges prescribed by the EAT-Lancet commission for a total score range of 0–140. Higher scores indicate greater adherence to the PHDI. We used multivariable linear and logistic regression models to examine cross-sectional and prospective (5-years) associations between baseline PHDI and measures of glycemia, blood lipids, inflammation, and adiposity, adjusting for demographic, health, lifestyle, and baseline value of biomarker (for prospective models). Logistic regression was used to examine association between baseline PHDI and incident type 2 diabetes (among n=661 participants free from diabetes at baseline) Results: Among MASALA study participants (49% female, mean age 57 y), the mean PHDI score was 88.8 (SD 9.47). At baseline, each 10 unit increase in PHDI scores were associated with (β ± SE) lower fasting glucose (-0.5±0.24 mmol/L), HbA1c (-0.49±0.22%), LDL cholesterol (-0.015±0.007 mmol/L), CRP (-5.87±2.35 mg/L), higher adiponectin (4.71 ±2.01 mg/dL), lower body weight (-0.59 ±0.26 kg), BMI (-0.27±0.11 kg/m 2 ), waist circumference (-0.82±0.29 cm), visceral fat (-3.22±1.32 cm 2 ), and pericardial fat (-0.92±0.43 cm 3 ) ( p <0.05 for all). Higher PHDI scores were associated lower odds of obesity OR (95% CI): 0.80 (0.71-0.92 and overweight 0.77 (0.74-0.85). Prospectively, higher PHDI scores were associated with lower fasting glucose (-0.28 ± 0.14 mmol/L), lower HbA1c (-0.08±0.03%), higher HDL (0.38±0.17 mmol/L), lower body weight (-0.37±0.12 kg), BMI (-0.08±0.03 kg/m 2 ), waist circumference (-0.49±0.17 cm), and systolic blood pressure (-0.65 ± 0.30 mmHg) ( p <0.05 for all). Each 10-unit higher PHDI was associated with a 20% lower risk of incident diabetes OR (95%CI): 0.80 (0.54-0.86). Conclusions: In the MASALA study, we found that greater adherence to the PHDI was associated with better cardiometabolic risk factors and lower risk of incident type 2 diabetes. These observations support the planetary health diet as a feasible strategy to address planetary health while optimizing human health outcomes.
Nair et al. (Tue,) studied this question.