Association of potato consumption with calcified atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries: The NHLBI Family Heart Study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: While the association of potato consumption with risk factors for coronary artery disease has been inconsistent, no data are available in the literature on the influence of potato consumption on subclinical disease. Thus, we sought to examine whether baked/mashed potato consumption is associated with calcified atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a cross-sectional design, we studied 2208 participants of the NHLBI Family Heart Study. These subjects were selected based on their elevated cardiovascular disease risk compared to the general population. Potato consumption was assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. We defined prevalent CAC using an Agatston score of at least 100 and fitted generalized estimating equations to calculate prevalence odds ratios of CAC. Mean age at initial clinic visit was 58.2 years and 55% were female. Median consumption of potatoes was 2-4/week. There was no statistically significant association between frequency of potato consumption and prevalent CAC: odds ratios (95% CI) for CAC were 1.0 (reference), 0.85 (0.56-1.30), 0.85 (0.58-1.26), and 0.95 (0.60-1.53) among subjects reporting potato consumption of <1/week, 1/week, 2-4/week, and 5+/week, respectively (p for linear trend 0.83), adjusting for age, sex, BMI, smoking, exercise, diabetes, hypertension, total calories, prevalent coronary heart disease, income, education, and daily red meat intake. CONCLUSIONS: We found no significant association between baked/mashed potato consumption and CAC in older adults. STUDY REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT00005136. Study registration date: 5/25/2000.

Processed potatoes intake and risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of nine prospective cohort studies.

The current cohort study shows the inconsistent association between potato consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of published prospective cohort studies to quantitatively estimate this association. We searched PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge, and the Cochrane Library up to September 2019 for all published articles. Seven of the articles reported nine cohort studies with 383,211 participants, with 23,189 T2DM cases that met the inclusion criteria and were included for our analysis. The results of random effects model pooled relative risk (RR) showed an association between potato intake and the risk of T2DM (pooled RR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.02-1.26, p > 0.01). In the subgroup analysis, French fries, long-term follow-up, large sample size, and high-quality studies were associated with an increased T2DM risk. Further, a linear dose-response analysis indicated that 100 g/day increment of total potato (RR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.02-1.08) and French fries (RR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.07-1.14) consumption may increase the risk of T2DM by 5% and 10%, respectively. Our meta-analysis showed that potato consumption, especially French fries consumption, was associated with increased T2DM risk.

Potato consumption is prospectively associated with risk of hypertension: An 11.3-year longitudinal cohort study.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Government has popularized potatoes as the staple food in China. Potatoes as a potassium-rich food show high glycemic responses after consumption. Whether potato consumption is prospectively linked with the risk of hypertension remains unclear in oriental populations. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association of potato consumption with the risk of hypertension among Chinese people. METHODS: A total of 11,763 adults (≥20 years old) who were free of hypertension at baseline were enrolled from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) Cohort study in 1989-2011. Participants were excluded if they were <20 years old, identified to be pregnant, and previously diagnosed with hypertension, cancers, infarction, apoplexy and diabetes at baseline. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the associations after adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: During average 11.3 years of follow-up, 4033 incident cases of hypertension were ascertained. People who consumed more amounts of total potatoes, stir-fried potatoes, and non stir-fried potatoes had higher risk of hypertension (P for trend = 0.1225, 0.2168 and 0.0456, respectively). Multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) for increased consumption of total potatoes were 1.402 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.270-1.548), 1.198 (95% CI, 1.014-1.415), and 1.120 (95% CI, 0.929-1.349) compared with non-consumers. However, the participants with higher intake of potato consumption were inclined to have lower risk of hypertension when excluding the non-consumers of total potatoes or stir-fried potatoes (P for trend = 0.0271 and 0.0001). In addition, a positive association of sweet potatoes intake with hypertension risk was only found in urban residents (P for trend = 0.0239). CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that potato consumption was prospectively associated with hypertension in Chinese population. As the urbanization process continues along with the transition to Western-style diets, more consideration should be taken before the formulation of potato popularization is promoted in China.