Abstract 15791: Diet Monotony is Associated With Higher Dietary Micronutrient Deficiencies in Patients With Heart Failure

IntroductionWe previously reported that many patients with heart failure have a high number of dietary micronutrient deficiencies. One hypothesis for the high number of deficiencies is that many patients consume a monotonous diet (same foods every day) that does not provide sufficient food variety to obtain all the necessary nutrients.PurposeTo determine whether a more monotonous diet was associated with a higher number of dietary micronutrient deficiencies.MethodsA total of 234 patients with heart failure (age 62 ± 12 years, 68% male, 44 % NYHA class III/IV) recorded detailed four-day food diaries. The diaries were analyzed using Nutrition Data System software to determine number of micronutrient deficiency of 18 vitamins and minerals, and to calculate a diet monotony score based on number of 23 food types consumed. Patients were divided into diet monotony tertiles according to number of different food types consumed. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the number of dietary micronutrient deficiencies across diet monotony tertiles. Post-hoc comparisons were made by least significant difference.ResultsPatients consumed an average of 12 ± 2.6 (range 4-19) different food types. The number of dietary micronutrient deficiencies significantly differed across the 3 tertiles (p < .001). Patients in the lowest tertile (most monotonous diet) had the greatest number of deficiencies, followed by the middle tertile (moderate monotonous diet) and the highest tertile (least monotonous diet), Figure. The average kcal intake between the most and least monotonous diet groups differed by only 238 kcal/day (1812 ± 559 vs 2050 ± 630; respectively).ConclusionAs hypothesized, patients with the most monotonous diet had the highest number of micronutrient deficiencies. This suggests that encouragement of a more varied diet is important for promoting adequate nutritional intake in patients with heart failure.