The association between food diversity and serum antioxidant indices in cataract patients compared to healthy subjects

Naeimeh Heidari; Reza Nabie; Masoumeh Jabbari; Zahra Irannejad Niri; Reihaneh Zeinalian; Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi; Seyed Rafie Arefhosseini

doi:10.4103/jrms.JRMS_321_20

The association between food diversity and serum antioxidant indices in cataract patients compared to healthy subjects

J Res Med Sci. 2021 Aug 30:26:59. doi: 10.4103/jrms.JRMS_321_20. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Naeimeh Heidari¹, Reza Nabie², Masoumeh Jabbari³, Zahra Irannejad Niri⁴, Reihaneh Zeinalian⁵, Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi⁶, Seyed Rafie Arefhosseini¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
² Nikookari Eye Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
³ Department of Community Nutrition, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Industry, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Nutrition Research Center, Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
⁶ Road Traffic Injury Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Cataract is a chronic disorder that is related to antioxidant-oxidant imbalance situation. We aimed to investigate the association between food diversity and serum antioxidant and oxidant indices in cataract patients compared to healthy subjects.

Materials and methods: In this case-control study, ninety volunteers (aged > 50 years) were divided into the cataract (n = 45) and healthy control (n = 45) groups. Anthropometric variables, physical activity and stress levels, food diversity score, serum total oxidant capacity (TOC), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) measurements were done for all participants.

Results: Serum TAC, even after adjustment for stress level, was significantly higher in healthy people compared to cataract patients (P < 0.001). In addition, serum TOC was significantly lower in healthy controls compared to cataract patients (P < 0.002). In healthy group, there was a weak significant positive association between serum TAC and meats group diversity (r = 0.149, P = 0.047). In addition, there was a moderate negative association between meats group diversity and TOC in the healthy controls (r = -0.712, P = 0.041). In the cataract group, there was a significant negative association between serum TOC and diversity score of fruits (r = -0.811, P = 0.017) and meats group (r = -0.926, P = 0.046) as well as total score of food diversity (r = -0.466, P = 0.003).

Conclusion: It seems that increase in total dietary diversity and food groups' diversity can have a beneficial effect on oxidant situation among cataract patients.

Keywords: Antioxidant; cataract; diet; oxidant.