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 Knüppel, Keren Papier, Aedín Cassidy, Tilman Kühn, Sabine Rohrmann
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.