Higher diet quality at the start of a 20-year follow-up was associated with lower odds of developing heart failure, according to an analysis of the ATTICA cohort published in the journal Nutrients on 6 October 2026 (DOI 10.3390/nu18193278). ATTICA recruited adults from the Attica region of Greece in 2001 and 2002, enrolling 3,042 of the 4,056 people randomly invited, with follow-up assessments at five, ten and twenty years. The analysis, reported by News-Medical on 11 October, covered the 2,159 participants whose heart failure status at twenty years was known. Diet was scored once, at baseline, using the Global Diet Quality Score, which separates a healthy-food component from a less-healthy-food component, and participants were grouped into cohort-specific thirds. Over the two decades 241 participants developed heart failure, a cumulative incidence of 11.2%. Unadjusted incidence was 20.7% in the lowest-scoring third, 5.1% in the middle third and 6.6% in the highest third.
Adjusted results and the study's limits
After adjustment, the researchers reported that each one-point rise in the Global Diet Quality Score was associated with about 3% lower odds of heart failure, and each one-point rise in the healthy-food component with about 4% lower odds. The less-healthy-food component showed no association. These are odds ratios from logistic regression rather than hazard ratios, and the design is observational, so it cannot show that diet caused the difference. The authors list baseline-only diet measurement, reporting error, unmeasured confounding, missing data, wide confidence intervals and weaker sensitivity analyses among the limitations. Participants lost to follow-up were better educated than those retained. No funding statement was available in the publication record we could access.
What this means in practice
Nothing in this analysis tested a supplement. The exposure was whole-diet quality scored from a food questionnaire and the outcome was a diagnosed heart condition, so the paper gives no basis for claiming that any product reduces the risk of heart failure, and it cannot tell an individual reader what their own odds are. The cohort is Greek and the diet scores reflect Greek eating patterns, so the numbers do not transfer directly to a UK population. It adds one more observational data point on overall diet pattern rather than on single nutrients. Readers reviewing what they already spend on health can browse Perqen's full product catalogue.
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This article reports published news and research and is for information only. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied diet or medical care, and no product mentioned is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Speak to your GP or pharmacist before changing what you take, especially if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or taking prescribed medicines.