A Prospective Study of Diet Quality and Mortality in Women

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Abstract
Although many studies have examined the role of single nutrients, foods, or food groups in the etiology of disease,1-3 relatively little research has addressed the health effects of dietary patterns comprising multiple interdependent dietary factors.4 Research on dietary patterns is warranted on several grounds. First, complex diets consumed by free-living individuals do not consist of single nutrients or foods but rather a combination of foods containing multiple nutrients and nonnutrients. Second, intercorrelation of dietary variables makes it difficult to isolate effects of single nutrients or foods. Third, in vivo biological activities of nutrients are interdependent.5-7 Finally, recommendations for disease prevention implicitly reflect the dietary-pattern approach by emphasizing the simultaneous change of several dietary behaviors, such as increasing fruit, vegetable, and grain intake, and decreasing fat intake.1,3