Correlation between Diet Quality and Metabolic Syndrome

Background: The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is increasing with an alarming rate world wide. Since diet components' studies that focus on MetS have produced largely inconsistent results, assessing the whole diet than single nutrients on health can be more practical. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between diet quality and MetS components. Methods: This cross-sectional study included a total of 152 participants aged 20-55 years recruited from the endocrinology center of Tehran University of medical sciences. Dietary intake assessed by food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to calculate healthy eating index 2010 (HEI-2010). Body mass index (BMI), weight, height, waist circumference, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c), triglycerides (TG), fasting blood glucose (FBG), and blood pressure were measured. Results: In this study HEI mean score was 55.26. Based on HEI-2010 values, diet quality was good in 0.7% of participants, needed improvement in 55.9%, and was poor in 43.4% of cases. Diet quality (HEI) was significantly and linearly related with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, TG, and BMI (P < 0.05). Conclusions: According to this study, low diet quality can be related to MetS components.