Iranian Journal of

Background: Only limited data are available on the benefits of fruits and vegetable consumption on CVD risk factors. The aim of this study was to examine whether and to what extent intake of fruits and vegetables are inversely associated with cardiovascular (CVD) risk factors in adults.                                                           

Methods: In this population-based cross-sectional study a representative sample of 840 Tehranian adults (361 men and 479 women) aged 18-74 years were randomly selected in 1998. Usual dietary intake was assessed with the use of food frequency questionnaire. Portion sizes of consumed foods were converted from household measures to grams and analyzed by using Nutritionist III software designed for Iranian foods. Subjects were categorized based on category cut-points. : 0-1.9, 2-2.9, 3.0-3.9, and>=4 servings/d.

Results: In multivariate logistic regression after adjusting for confounders, dietary fruits and vegetable were found to be significantly and inversely associated with CVD risk factors. Adjusted odds ratio for high LDL concentrations were 1.00, 0.88, 0.81, 0.75(P for trend < 0.01) in first model which was adjusted for age, body mass index (BMI), energy intake, smoking status, dietary cholesterol, and prevalence of diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease, a trend which was not appreciably altered by additional adjustment for education, physical activity, and saturated, polyunsaturated, total fat, Potassium and vitamin C intakes. This association was observed across categories of smoking status, physical activity, and tertiles of the Keys score.

Conclusion: Consumption of fruits and vegetables more than 4 servings a day is associated with lower concentrations of total cholesterol and LDL-C and with decrease in the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Background: The prevalence of non-communicable disorders such as metabolic syndrome (MetS) is high in developing countries. Metabolic syndrome is a disorder of energy utilization and storage, diagnosed by a co-occurrence of three out of five of the following medical conditions: abdominal (central) obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting plasma glucose, high serum triglycerides, and low high-density cholesterol (HDL) levels. The present review aims to discover the genetic variant reported in association with MetS. Methods: The database for genotypes and phenotypes (dbGaP) and the database for genetic associations and human genome (HuGE navigator) were utilized in order to search for genes and their corresponding polymorphisms related to MetS. Additionally, an electronic literature search for other Iranian studies and the genetic aspect of TLGS was completed using PubMed. Results: For phenotype selection in PheGenI, 30 traits were chosen and after the analysis, 21 of them were in common results with MetS. After finding the common variation between traits and MetS, omitting the repeated SNPs, 173 variations were remained. Finally, results distinguished six of the most important genetic regions found to have strong association with MetS. Conclusion: Identifying major genes that are responsible for the metabolic syndrome may improve the medical care for treating individuals with metabolic syndrome, and eventually may lead to personalized medicine in which treatment is tailored genetically to the patient’s needs. The present candidate regions is a respectable start to replicate genetic studies in large affected Iranian individual which we hope leads us to improve our medical care in this field.