Adherence to the EAT-Lancet reference diet is associated with a reduced risk of incident cancer and all-cause mortality in UK adults

Nena Karavasiloglou; Alysha S Thompson; Giulia Pestoni; Anika Knuppel; Keren Papier; Aedín Cassidy; Tilman Kühn; Sabine Rohrmann

doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2023.11.002

Adherence to the EAT-Lancet reference diet is associated with a reduced risk of incident cancer and all-cause mortality in UK adults

One Earth. 2023 Dec 15;6(12):1726-1734. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.11.002.

Authors

Nena Karavasiloglou^{1

2

3}, Alysha S Thompson⁴, Giulia Pestoni^{1

5}, Anika Knuppel⁶, Keren Papier⁷, Aedín Cassidy⁴, Tilman Kühn^{4

8}, Sabine Rohrmann^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Cancer Registry of the Cantons of Zurich, Zug, Schaffhausen, and Schwyz, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy.
⁴ The Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.
⁵ Nutrition Group, Health Department, Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁶ MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, London, UK.
⁷ Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁸ Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH), Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.

Abstract

Food systems have been identified as significant contributors to the global environmental emergency. However, there is no universally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a planetary healthy, sustainable diet. In our study, we investigated the association between the EAT-Lancet reference diet, a diet within the planetary boundaries, and incident cancer, incident major cardiovascular events, and all-cause mortality. Higher adherence to the EAT-Lancet reference diet was associated with lower incident cancer risk (hazard ratio [HR]_continuous: 0.99; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.98-0.99]) and lower all-cause mortality (HR _continuous: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.98-0.99), while mostly null associations were detected for major cardiovascular event risk (HR _continuous: 1.00; 95% CI: 0.98-1.01). Stratified analyses using potentially modifiable risk factors led to similar results. Our findings, in conjunction with the existing literature, support that adoption of the EAT-Lancet reference diet could have a benefit for the prevention of non-communicable diseases.

Keywords: EAT-Lancet; cancer; cardiovascular; diet; incidence; mortality; sustainable.

Abstract

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