PHILADELPHIA – Engaging in at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week as recommended in national guidelines appears to mitigate the cardiometabolic risks associated with poor diet quality in middle-aged and older adults, according to an analysis of Framingham Heart Study data.
Bruce Jancin/MDedge News
Dr. Joowon Lee
“Our findings suggest adherence to physical activity guidelines may have a protective effect on cardiometabolic health regardless of diet quality,” Joowon Lee, PhD, declared at the American Heart Association scientific sessions.
He presented separate cross-sectional analyses of the risks of metabolic syndrome in 2,379 middle-aged participants in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute–sponsored Framingham (Mass.) Third Generation Study and 1,180 older participants in the Framingham Offspring Study.
The two analyses showed the same thing across a broad age spectrum: The highest prevalence of metabolic syndrome as defined by Adult Treatment Panel III criteria was present among those individuals who got less than 150 minutes of physical activity per week and were also in the lowest tertile in terms of diet quality, while the lowest prevalence of metabolic syndrome occurred in participants in the top tertile for diet quality who engaged in at least 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity in accord with the Department of Health & Human Services 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.
In both the middle-aged and older populations, optimal physical activity – that is, at least 150 minutes per week – appeared to override the adverse impact of suboptimal diet quality. Physically active individuals with moderate or even poor diet quality had a significantly lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome than did the reference group constituted by participants with poor diet quality who didn’t exercise for 150 minutes per week.
But the converse didn’t hold true: Individuals with optimal diet quality who didn’t reach the physical activity threshold had no reduction in metabolic syndrome, compared with the reference group, according to Dr. Lee of Boston University.
For example, among the Framingham Offspring Study participants, whose mean age was 69 years at the time of their ninth formal examination in 2014, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 59% in those who got less than 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity weekly as assessed by accelerometer and who were also in the lowest tertile for diet quality as self-reported on the DGAI-2010 (Dietary Guidelines Adherence Index) semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. The relative risk of metabolic syndrome was reduced by 61% in participants with both optimal physical activity and diet quality, by 49% in those with at least 150 minutes of physical activity but only moderate diet quality, and by 39% in those with optimal exercise and poor diet quality. In contrast, individuals in the top or middle tertiles for diet quality who didn’t meet the physical activity standard had a metabolic syndrome rate that wasn’t significantly lower than the reference group.
Dr. Lee observed that his analyses are best viewed as hypothesis generating. Their cross-sectional format precludes firm conclusions as to causality.
His findings prompted session comoderator Satyam Sarma, MD, of the University of Texas, Dallas, to make one of the most memorable comments heard at AHA 2019: that the Framingham findings suggest it may be possible to outrun a bad diet.
Dr. Lee reported having no financial conflicts regarding his study, supported by Boston University.
SOURCE: Lee J. AHA 2019, Abstract RF244.