Diet, prevalence and 10-year mortality from coronary heart disease in 871 middle-aged men. The Zutphen Study

The Zutphen Study is a longitudinal investigation among middle-aged men of relationships between diet, other risk characteristics, and coronary heart disease (CHD). In 1960, dietary data were collected by the cross-check dietary history method. CHD mortality data were collected during 10 years of follow-up. The 14 men with CHD at baseline consumed 524 kcal/day less than the 857 CHD-free men. During 10 years of follow-up, 30 men who were initially free of CHD died from CHD. Those men consumed 273 kcal/day less than men who did not die from CHD. The inverse relationship between energy intake and CHD became stronger when energy intake was expressed per kg of body weight. Dietary cholesterol per 1000 kcal was significantly positively related to CHD, while vegetable protein, polysaccharides, and dietary fiber were significantly inversely related to CHD. These relationships were no longer statistically significant when energy intake per kg of body weight was added to the logistic model. The inverse relationship between energy intake per kg of body weight and CHD became insignificant when subscapular skinfold and serum cholesterol were added to the logistic model. It is concluded that the influence of energy intake per kg of body weight on CHD is mediated through other risk characteristics: subscapular skinfold and serum cholesterol.