The Study
Food Compass Score predicts incident cardiovascular disease: The ATTICA cohort study (2002-2022).
This study watched people for 20 years and noticed that those who ate more nutritious foods (as scored by Food Compass) tended to have fewer heart problems. But it didn’t make people change their diets — so we can’t say the food itself caused the better health.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Scientists gave every food a score from 1 to 100 based on how healthy it is — like a report card for food. They followed people for 20 years to see if eating higher-scoring foods helped prevent heart disease.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 560 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — even small, consistent improvements in food quality (like swapping soda for water or white bread for whole grain) can add up to meaningful heart protection over decades.
- 2For every 1-point increase in food score, people had a 3% lower chance of getting heart disease over 20 years.
- 3If they already ate a Mediterranean diet, the benefit was even stronger — 4% lower risk per point.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association
Year
2023
Authors
E. Damigou, P. Detopoulou, Smaragdi Antonopoulou, C. Chrysohoou, F. Barkas, E. Vlachopoulou, C. Vafia, C. Tsioufis, E. Liberopoulos, P. Sfikakis, C. Pitsavos, Demosthenes Panagiotakos
Related Content
Claims (6)
The Food Compass system rates foods with a single score from 1 to 100 using 54 measurable characteristics grouped into nine categories related to health.
People who eat diets rated highly by the Food Compass Score have lower cardiovascular disease risk after 20 years than after 10 years, showing that long-term diet quality has a stronger protective effect than short-term diet quality.
Over 20 years, middle-aged adults with a higher Food Compass Score, which measures diet quality, had a 3% lower risk of cardiovascular disease for each one-point increase in their score, regardless of age, sex, smoking, physical activity, or initial diet patterns.
In people who already eat a Mediterranean-style diet, a small improvement in diet quality measured by the Food Compass Score is linked to a 4% reduction in the risk of developing cardiovascular disease over 20 years.
The Food Compass Score and the Mediterranean diet score measure different things about how healthy a person's eating habits are, because they do not align closely with each other.
People who followed the Mediterranean diet consistently over 20 years had a 2% lower risk of cardiovascular disease for each one-point increase in their diet quality score, while those who did not follow it showed no significant change in risk.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.