Clinical Application of the Food Compass Score: Positive Association to Mediterranean Diet Score, Health Star Rating System and an Early Eating Pattern in University Students.

Nutrient profiling systems (NPS) assist consumers in food choices. Several scores based on NPS have been proposed, but data on their clinical application are lacking. The food compass score (FCS) is a newly developed NPS per 100 kcal (from 1 "least healthy" to 100 "most healthy"). We examined the correlations of FCS with other indices, food groups, and meal patterns. A total of 346 students of the University of the Peloponnese (269 women and 77 men) participated. Dietary habits were evaluated with a food frequency questionnaire, and FCS, health star rating score (HSR), and MedDietScore were computed. Meal and snack frequency consumption was reported. Principal component analysis revealed three meal patterns: "early eater" (breakfast, morning snack and afternoon snack), "medium eater" (lunch and dinner), and "late eater" (bedtime snack). Pearson partial correlations between ranked variables were used to test the correlation coefficients between FCS, other scores, and meal patterns, after adjustment for age, sex, BMI, and underreporting. FCS was positively correlated to HSR (rho = 0.761, p ≤ 0.001) in a multi-adjusted analysis. In the highest tertile of MedDietScore FCS was also positively correlated to MedDietScore (rho = 0.379, p < 0.001). The FCS was positively correlated with juices, high-fat dairy, vegetables, legumes, fruits, and olive oil and negatively correlated with sodas, alcoholic drinks, red meat, refined grains, sweets, fats other than olive oil, fast foods, and coffee. In addition, it related positively to the "early eater" pattern (rho = 0.207, p < 0.001). The FCS was associated with other quality indices and better nutritional habits, such as being an early eater.

Late-Night Overeating or Low-Quality Food Choices Late at Night Are Associated with Subclinical Vascular Damage in Patients at Increased Cardiovascular Risk.

Late-night overeating (LNO) is associated with several cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. Limited data exist regarding the association between late-night (LN) systematic food consumption, LNO, and LN poor food quality with subclinical vascular damage (SVD) which precedes the onset of CVD. This study aimed to investigate the above associations with SVD in a large sample of adults, free of established CVD, with one or more CVD risk factors. In total, 901 adults (45.2% males) underwent anthropometric, dietary (through two 24 h dietary recalls) and vascular assessment. LN systematic eating was defined as consumption of food after 19:00 h in both dietary recalls and LNO was defined as systematic consumption of >40% of daily total energy intake (dTEI) after 19:00 h. Systematic LN food consumption was inversely associated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (−1.44 95% C.I. (−2.76, −0.12)) after adjusting for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, smoking, BMI and dTEI. LNO was positively associated with existence of carotid plaques (1.70 95% C.I. (1.07, 2.68)), while LN increased consumption of red meat, refined grains and wine and low consumption of whole wheat grains was positively associated with Aix (Augmentation Index) (0.84 95% C.I. (0.09, 1.59)), after adjusting for all the mentioned confounders. Systematic LN eating is associated with lower DBP while systematic LNO and consumption of poor-quality food late at night, is associated with SVD. Further research is needed to define more accurately the impact of LN eating habits on vascular health.