Table 2.

Effect of intake levels of major dietary factors on age-adjusted relative telomere length among 455 normotensive controls*

Dietary factors	n (%)	Age-adjusted RTL (SD)	p Value†
Vegetables (g/day)
<50	72 (15.9)	−0.064 (0.94)	0.01
50–150	276 (60.8)	0.011 (0.99)
>150	106 (23.3)	0.32 (0.98)‡
Fruit (g/day)
<50	141 (31.1)	0.17 (0.97)	0.35
50–150	263 (57.9)	0.031 (0.98)
>150	50 (11.0)	0.010 (1.08)
Meat (g/week)
<100	240 (52.7)	0.093 (0.92)	0.58
100–200	148 (32.5)	0.083 (1.02)
>200	67 (14.7)	−0.046 (1.11)
Fish/seafood (g/week)
<100	217 (47.7)	0.16 (1.00)	0.17
100–200	128 (28.1)	0.017 (0.95)
>200	110 (24.2)	−0.044 (0.99)
Poultry (g/week)
<50	126 (27.7)	0.21 (0.96)	0.16
50–100	277 (60.9)	0.019 (0.96)
>100	52 (11.4)	−0.005 (1.12)
Milk
None	287 (63.4)	0.13 (1.00)	0.07
Regularly	166 (36.6)	−0.04 (0.95)
Soya milk
None	331 (73.1)	0.15 (0.96)	0.005
Regularly	122 (26.9)	−0.15 (1.03)
Egg (/week)
None	104 (22.9)	−0.007 (1.02)	0.07
1–4	295 (65.0)	0.21 (0.91)
>4	55 (12.1)	0.093 (0.92)
Fried food
None	178 (39.2)	0.19 (0.97)	0.045
Regularly	276 (60.8)	−0.002 (0.99)
Dessert
None	143 (31.5)	0.15 (0.95)	0.28
Regularly	311 (68.5)	0.038 (1.00)
Salt (g/day)
<6	341 (74.9)	0.08 (0.92)	0.10
6–12	100 (22.0)	0.11 (1.14)
>12	14 (3.1)	−0.48 (1.13)

*No significant P for trend was found for any of the analyses.

†Independent t test or one-way analysis of variance.

‡p<0.05 in comparison to vegetable intake of <50 and 50–100 g/day.