PURE Healthy Diet Score

The PURE Healthy Diet Score is a diet score which was created to predict the survival rate and the incidence of heart attack and stroke. The researchers developed it based on the data from PURE, a large, international study.

The study showed that the optimal diet was different from current American diet recommendations. It advised 3 daily servings of full fat dairy and 1.5 daily servings of unprocessed red meat. The findings of the study were reported at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology.

The population with the best outcome consumed on average about 8 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, 2.5 servings of legumes and nuts, 3 servings of full-fat dairy, 1.5 servings of unprocessed red meat, and 0.3 servings of fish (about 2 servings of fish weekly). In the best outcomes the energy consumption had the following structure: 54 % calories as carbohydrates, 28 % as fat, and 18 % as proteins. In contrast worst outcomes received 69% of calories from carbohydrates, 19% from fat, and 12% from protein.

The finding that decreased mortality was linked with an increased intake of saturated fat from dairy and red meat ran counter to expectations and differs from most other current dietary advice.

The PURE Healthy Diet Score is now being considered for broad, global dietary recommendations.

 

Oxana Popescu MD

Source: Internal Medicine News, Vol. 51, No 17, November 2018