Cardiovascular Disease: Diet, Nutrition and Emerging Risk Factors

Citation

Barasi, M. (2007), "Cardiovascular Disease: Diet, Nutrition and Emerging Risk Factors", British Food Journal, Vol. 109 No. 1, pp. 99-100. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700710718534

This book represents the outcome of the work of a British Nutrition Foundation Task Force, convened to review the present state of knowledge of the link between emerging aspects of the diet (and related factors) and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The members of the Task Force represented a range of disciplines. Chapters were prepared by one or two members and then commented on, or contributed to by other members.

The text ranges over the subject both broadly and in depth. The chapters are clearly structured and progress logically, addressing an immensely complex and rapidly changing field. Figures and Tables provide helpful illustrative and summative support to the text, and similar diagrams are used in different chapters, providing some continuity. Evidence is reviewed and its strength assessed. Each chapter closes with clear key points, some recommendations for future research and a small number of references. An extensive reference list is provided at the end of the book, together with a glossary.

An introductory chapter discusses the aetiology and epidemiology of CVD, providing an overview and summarising mechanisms and risk factors, as currently understood.

In their work, the Task Force members identified several recurring factors, which are inter‐related and cluster together in many epidemiological studies. Accordingly, a separate chapter (Chapter 2) is included to discuss some of the overlap between insulin resistance/ glucose intolerance/ diabetes mellitus, obesity, hypertension and physical inactivity as well as some genetic factors.

The subsequent six chapters each take one of the major components of the CVD process and explore the established and emergent risk factors. These chapters include the following: lipid related factors, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, haemostatic factors, inflammation and the role of homocysteine. Such an approach allows the complex process to be more readily understood by the reader.

Newly‐emerging fields for which the evidence is still being gathered, include the contribution of adipose tissue derived factors, and the role of fetal and maternal nutrition and these are discussed in the following two chapters.

This central part of the book is detailed and extensive. Some of the chapters are more technically complex than others, which may impact on their accessibility to readers lacking the specific expertise.

The chapters towards the end of the book provide the “take home message”. Firstly, the evidence on diet and CVD is reviewed in the light of material presented within the book. There is some repetition here, but the synthesis of information in a single chapter is particularly useful. A similar chapter summarises the evidence regarding the importance of physical activity.

The implications of the evidence summarised in these two chapters for the formulation of public health policy are discussed next. This chapter also includes consideration of the barriers to be overcome. Finally the conclusions (chapter by chapter) and recommendations of the Task Force are presented.

There is also a chapter providing Questions and Answers which are commonly encountered from medical journalists, thus allowing the Task Force to provide a more non‐technical summary of its key deliberations and findings.

Overall, this is an important resource for all those who need up‐to‐date information about diet and CVD. The book succeeds at a numbers of levels and is therefore applicable to a wide audience. It provides a full exploration of the evidence base for the mechanisms of CVD. Scientific detail is included for those who need it, together with directions and suggestions for future work. Useful summaries and conclusions provide a more “at a glance” overview of the subject, so that even non‐technical readers can gain from it. Anyone who has a professional interest in the subject should be familiar with this book, and gain an awareness of the multifactorial approaches required to tackle CVD.