A traditional Korean dietary pattern and metabolic syndrome abnormalities

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Abstract

Background and aims

Using national data, we explored the relationship between dietary patterns and metabolic abnormalities to address how the traditional Korean diet, high in carbohydrate and low in animal fat with plenty of plant foods, has influenced metabolic abnormalities in the adult population.

Methods and results

We examined cross-sectional associations between dietary patterns and the risk of metabolic abnormalities in 4,730 subjects aged 20 years or more using both health and dietary data from the 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination survey. Three evident dietary patterns were derived by cluster analysis: ‘Traditional’ (50.3% of total population), ‘Meat and Alcohol, (15.8%) and ‘Korean Healthy’ (33.9%). The ‘Traditional’ group was characterised by high consumptions of rice and kimchi, while the ‘Korean healthy’ group ate a modified Korean-style diet with various foods such as noodles, bread, eggs and milk, and the ‘Meat and Alcohol’ group had high consumptions of processed meat and alcohol. Compared with the ‘Traditional’ pattern, the ‘Meat and Alcohol’ pattern was associated with a 33% increased risk of having elevated blood glucose, a 21% increased risk of having elevated serum triglycerides and a 21% increased risk of having elevated blood pressure. However, the ‘Traditional’ pattern showed a 23% increased risk of having low high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol compared with the other two patterns by logistics analysis.

Conclusions

Fifty percent of the Korean adult population continues to follow a traditional dietary pattern, having beneficial effects with respect to some metabolic abnormalities. However, the high prevalence of low HDL-cholesterol, attributable to a high-carbohydrate diet, should be considered.

Section snippets

Study population

This study was based on data obtained from the third Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES III) of non-institutionalised Korean civilians in 2005. Details of the KNHANES performed in 2005 have been previously described [16]. In brief, KNHANES III consisted of the following four components: (1) a health Interview Survey, (2) a health behaviors survey, (3) a health examination survey and (4) a nutrition survey. A total of 34,145 individuals from a stratified, multistage

Results

The key characteristics of the three dietary patterns and mean nutrient intakes are presented in Table 1. The ‘Traditional’ pattern had more than half of its percent daily energy intake solely from white rice, and vegetable and Kimchi consumptions were higher in this pattern than in the other two patterns. The ‘Meat and Alcohol’ pattern received 27% of energy from white rice, 22% of energy from meat and its products, and 11% of energy from alcohol. The ‘Korean Healthy’ pattern received 27% of

Discussion

Dietary patterns rich in whole-grains, fruits, vegetables and dairy foods have been suggested as having benefits against metabolic syndrome [1]. The Korean diet is traditionally high in carbohydrate, low in fat, and abundant in plant foods. In this study, three distinctive dietary patterns were identified among the adult Korean population using data from the recent Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey. Half of the population maintained a traditional dietary pattern with high consumptions

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Catholic University of Korea, Research Fund, 2009. None of authors had conflicts of interest to disclose.

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