Dietary nitrate intake may be associated with lower AMD risk
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Dietary nitrate intake was associated with a lower risk for age-related macular degeneration, but the association may be attributed to existing Mediterranean diet patterns, according to a cohort study.
“In general, individuals with high nitrate intakes were likely to have diets that were denser in vitamins, minerals and healthy fats,” the study authors wrote. “When the Mediterranean diet index tertiles were added to the model, the associations of dietary nitrate with late AMD were attenuated and were no longer statistically significant for [neovascular] AMD but remained significant for late AMD and [geographic atrophy], suggesting that dietary nitrate is not an entirely independent estimator of late AMD in these cohorts and may be a marker of other components in a fruit and vegetable-rich dietary pattern.”
The authors analyzed data from AREDS, AREDS2 and their extended follow-up studies to investigate the suggestion that low dietary nitrate intake is associated with AMD progression. There were 13,511 eligible eyes across the combined cohorts, with each participant having at least one eye with non-late AMD.
Across the combined cohorts, dietary nitrate intake was associated with a decreased risk for progression to late AMD, as well as a decreased risk for geographic atrophy and neovascular AMD.
AREDS showed a decreased risk for late AMD and geographic atrophy that correlated with an increased nitrate intake, but there was no association for neovascular AMD. AREDS2 showed no association between nitrate intake and late AMD or neovascular AMD.
The variety of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and protective bioactive molecules found in healthy diet patterns, including the Mediterranean diet, may have contributed to the protective associations between dietary nitrates and AMD in the current study.
“Much of the outcome associated with nitrate intake can be attributed to plant-based dietary patterns in general, such as a Mediterranean diet,” the authors wrote. “Further research, including potential randomized clinical trials, may be warranted to further assess the role of dietary nitrate in reducing the risk of AMD progression.”
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