Association between dietary acid load with alternative Mediterranean diet and dietary approaches to stop hypertension among Tehranian women

There are few studies that have been examined the association between dietary acid load and healthy diet patterns. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between dietary acid load with alternative Mediterranean diet score (aMED) and dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH).  This cross-sectional study was conducted among 270 women with age range 20-50 years in Tehran, Iran. Usual dietary intakes were assessed by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, which contains 168 food items. Potential renal acid load (PRAL) and Net Endogenous Acid Production (NEAP) and Dietary acid load (DAL) was calculated for each person. The scores of aMED and DASH were estimated for participants. The mean ± SD of age was 32.64 ±8.44 years. AMED scores were significant difference among the PRAL, NEAP and DAL tertiles (P<0.001, P=0.01 and P=0.003 for PRAL, NEAP and DAL respectively). Also, the women who were in the middle tertiles of dietary acid load indices, have lower DASH scores compared with the lower tertiles (P=0.007, P=0.03 and P=0.005 for PRAL, NEAP and DAL respectively). These results stayed significant even after adjusting for multiple covariates. The present study showed that dietary acid load indices have a negative association with aMED and DASH scores.