Publications by authors named "Willett W"

Cardiovascular risk factors begin in childhood and track into adulthood, increasing the possibility of impaired cardiometabolic health. Adopting healthy dietary patterns can help curb childhood obesity, a worrisome epidemic problem at present. In the era of personalized nutrition, dietary recommendations should be adapted to different stages of life, including children (older than 3 years) and adolescents.

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Background: Consumption of coffee has been consistently associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, it is unknown whether the use of additives may modify the association.

Objective: To study the association between coffee consumption and risk of T2D by considering the addition of sugar, artificial sweeteners, cream or a non-dairy coffee whitener.

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Background And Objectives: Previous studies have shown inconsistent associations between red meat intake and cognitive health. Our objective was to examine the association between red meat intake and multiple cognitive outcomes.

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, we included participants free of dementia at baseline from 2 nationwide cohort studies in the United States: the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS).

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Background: Diet plays a vital role in human health and environmental effects. Monitoring diet quality and its relationship to both health and environment are essential for policy making.

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze trends in the Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI) and its associations with daily greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food, disease-related biomarkers, anthropometric measurements, obesity, and all-cause mortality in the United States population.

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Aims/hypothesis: A positive association between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and diabetes risk has been shown, with inconsistent evidence between artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) and diabetes. Moreover, it is uncertain if physical activity can mitigate the negative effects of these beverages on diabetes development. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the independent and joint associations between SSB or ASB consumption and physical activity on the risk of type 2 diabetes.

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Background: Asian Indians are susceptible to developing type 2 diabetes at a lower age and often consume diets that are high in glycemic load and low in healthy fats.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of 30 g prebreakfast and 30 g predinner supplementation of pistachios for 12 wk on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), other glycemic markers, anthropometry, and lipid profile of Asian Indians with prediabetes.

Methods: In a 12-wk parallel arm, randomized controlled trial, we recruited 120 participants with prediabetes based on American Diabetes Association criteria.

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Background: The 313-variant polygenic risk score (PRS) provides a promising tool for clinical breast cancer risk prediction. However, evaluation of the PRS across different European populations which could influence risk estimation has not been performed.

Methods: We explored the distribution of PRS across European populations using genotype data from 94,072 females without breast cancer diagnosis, of European-ancestry from 21 countries participating in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) and 223,316 females without breast cancer diagnosis from the UK Biobank.

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Importance: It remains unclear how socioeconomic status (SES) is related to the association between diet and health, as well as the role of behavioral factors, in explaining socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes.

Objective: To investigate the associations of neighborhood and individual SES factors, as well as behavioral factors, particularly dietary pattern, with health outcomes.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This prospective cohort study included US health professionals without chronic diseases at baseline who were enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (calendar years 1988-2018), the Nurses' Health Study (calendar years 1992-2018), and the Nurses' Health Study II (calendar years 2001-2019).

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Article Synopsis
  • Dietary guidelines suggest replacing animal protein with plant protein, but the optimal plant-to-animal protein ratio (P:A) for health benefits is still unclear.
  • The study analyzed data from three large cohorts totaling over 200,000 participants and found that a higher P:A ratio was linked to a significantly reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary artery disease (CAD), although it did not affect stroke risk.
  • Overall, the research indicates that increasing plant protein at the expense of animal protein can benefit heart health, particularly by substituting red and processed meats with plant-based options.
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The Planetary Health Diet (PHD), also known as the EAT-Lancet reference diet, was developed to optimize global dietary quality while keeping the environmental impacts of food production within sustainable planetary boundaries. We calculated current national and global adherence to the PHD using the Planetary Health Dietary Index (PHDI). In addition, we used data on diet and mortality from three large US cohorts (n = 206,404 men and women, 54,536 deaths) to estimate the total and cause-specific mortality among adults 20 y of age and older that could be prevented by shifting from current diets to the reference PHD.

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Background: Dietary patterns promoting chronic inflammation, including the empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP), have been associated with certain cancers. Investigating whether this dietary pattern is associated with breast cancer-where the role of inflammation is less well-defined-could provide valuable insights and potentially improve strategies for preventing this cancer.

Methods: We prospectively followed 76,386 women from Nurses' Health Study (NHS, 1984-2018) and 92,886 women from Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII, 1991-2019).

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Article Synopsis
  • This study examined how changes in fatty acid intake relate to mortality among 65,179 adults over several years.
  • A higher total fat intake (5% increase) was linked to lower overall mortality, while specific types of fats (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated) were associated with even greater reductions in mortality risk.
  • Conversely, an increase in trans fatty acid intake raised mortality risk, with certain fats like marine n-3 PUFA significantly lowering deaths from various diseases.
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  • This study investigates the impact of beverage consumption during adolescence on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in adulthood, using a cohort of 41,317 women from the Nurses' Health Study II.
  • It found that higher intake of coffee and orange juice in adolescence was linked to a lower risk of T2DM, while regular soda and iced tea consumption was associated with a higher risk.
  • Changes in beverage habits from adolescence to adulthood also influenced T2DM risk, with increased coffee intake reducing risk and increased regular soda consumption elevating it.
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Background: Dietary quality plays an important role in disease development and prognosis, and diet is also a key contributor to disparities in many chronic diseases and health conditions.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess racial and ethnic disparities experienced by veterans; we examined food intake and dietary quality across different racial and ethnic groups of United States veterans.

Methods: The study included 420,730 males and females aged 19-107 y (91.

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Background: Metabolomic profiles may influence colorectal cancer (CRC) development. Few studies have performed pre-diagnostic metabolome-wide analyses with CRC risk.

Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study among women (Nurses' Health Study (NHS)) and men (Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS)) who provided blood between 1989 and 1995.

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Debate persists regarding the potential carcinogenicity of aspartame as suggested by experimental studies. Therefore, we prospectively evaluated whether aspartame consumption is associated with breast cancer risk in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and Nurses' Health study II (NHSII). We used Cox models to calculate HRs and 95% CIs.

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Healthy dietary patterns have been linked to a decreased risk of chronic diseases. However, it remains uncertain whether proteomic signatures can reflect proteome response to healthy diet patterns, and whether these proteomic signatures are associated with health outcomes. Using data from the UK Biobank including Olink plasma proteins, we identified substantial proteomic variation in relation to adherence to eight healthy dietary patterns.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates the unclear impact of nonnutritive sweeteners (NNSs) on body mass index (BMI) in children and adolescents, emphasizing the need for systematic evaluations due to increased NNS consumption.
  • - A total of 12 studies were included, showing that random allocation to NNS beverages resulted in less BMI gain compared to sugar-sweetened beverages, particularly in adolescents and those with obesity.
  • - However, long-term prospective cohort studies found a nonsignificant association between NNS beverages and BMI gain, indicating that evidence quality was low to moderate, with concerns about conflicts of interest in some studies.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the links between total and specific ultra-processed food (UPF) intake and cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke across three large cohorts of U.S. adults.
  • Researchers utilized food frequency questionnaires and statistical models to analyze data from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII), and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) involving nearly 206,000 participants.
  • Findings indicated that higher total UPF intake was associated with increased risks of CVD and CHD, while specific UPF groups like sugary drinks and processed meats showed stronger links to CVD than others like bread and cold cereals, which had lesser or inverse associations
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Background: In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems proposed a Planetary Health Diet that seeks to optimise both chronic disease prevention as well as global environmental health. In this study, we aimed to examine the association between a dietary index based on the Planetary Health Diet and risk of cardiovascular disease.

Methods: We included women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS I; 1986-2016), women from the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II; 1991-2017), and men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS; 1986-2016) who were free of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes at baseline.

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Background: For over 45 y increasingly comprehensive food tables of glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) have been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition to determine the GI and GL values of diets. Recently the WHO based on a 2019 series of meta-analyses concluded that increases in dietary fiber and whole grains but not reduction in GI or GL warranted recommendations for chronic disease reduction.

Methods And Results: We therefore provide a perspective on the current evidence that indicates that GI and GL are also determinants of risk of chronic disease outcomes.

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Background And Aims: Erythritol, a sugar alcohol (polyol), has recently been linked to the risks of major adverse cardiovascular events. We investigated whether plasma erythritol and other polyols (mannitol/sorbitol) were associated with the risk of incident coronary heart disease (CHD).

Methods: This prospective nested case-control study included 762 incident cases of CHD and 762 controls from the Nurses' Health Study.

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Background: Meat consumption could increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, evidence is largely based on studies of European and North American populations, with heterogeneous analysis strategies and a greater focus on red meat than on poultry. We aimed to investigate the associations of unprocessed red meat, processed meat, and poultry consumption with type 2 diabetes using data from worldwide cohorts and harmonised analytical approaches.

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