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Vegetable and fruit consumption associated with anthropometric, dietary and lifestyle factors in Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Antonio Agudo  and
Guillem Pera
Antonio Agudo*
Affiliation:
IREC (Institut de Recerca Epidemiològica i Clínica), Mataró, Barcelona, Spain
Guillem Pera
Affiliation:
IREC (Institut de Recerca Epidemiològica i Clínica), Mataró, Barcelona, Spain
*
*Corresponding author: Email [email protected]
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Abstract

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Objective

To evaluate the association of vegetable and fruit intake with several demographic, anthropometric, lifestyle and dietary factors.

Design and setting

Cross-sectional analysis. Information on habitual diet was collected by means of the diet history method. Association of vegetable and fruit intakes with other factors was assessed separately by means of multiple lineal regression and the cumulative odds model.

Subjects

39 622 healthy subjects aged 29–69 years from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort in Spain.

Results

Fruit intake increased with age, education and physical activity and decreased with intake of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol; smoking and alcohol consumption were also negatively associated with fruit, with a very low consumption for current smokers and heavy drinkers. Vegetable intake increased with education and physical activity and with intake of unsaturated fatty acids, mainly mono-unsaturated. Former smokers consumed more vegetables than never or current smokers and non-consumers of alcohol ate less vegetables than consumers, among whom no differences were observed. All these estimates were adjusted by energy and body mass index (BMI).

Conclusions

When assessing the association of fruit and vegetables with chronic diseases it is important to take into account confounding factors. Furthermore, it would be useful to study dietary patterns including several interrelated factors.

Keywords

VegetablesFruitSmokingAlcohol drinkingDietary fatsRisk factorsStatistical modelsRegression analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , March 1999 , pp. 263 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 1999

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