Dietary Adherence of Saudi Males to the Saudi Dietary Guidelines and Its Relation to Cardiovascular Diseases: A Preliminary Cross-Sectional Study

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major public health problem in Saudi Arabia. Dietary intake plays a major role in CVD incidence; however, the dietary intake status in Saudi nationals with CVD is unknown. We aimed to investigate whether the dietary patterns of Saudi males, using the Saudi dietary guidelines adherence score, in parallel with the measurement of a selective number of cardiovascular disease-related biomarkers, are contributing factors to CVD risk. Demographics, dietary adherence score, and blood biomarker levels were collected for 40 CVD patients and forty non-CVD patients. Fasting blood glucose (p = 0.006) and high-density lipoprotein levels (p = 0.03) were significantly higher in CVD patients. The adherence score to the Saudi dietary guidelines was not significantly different between the CVD and non-CVD patients; however, the specific adherence scores of fruit (p = 0.02), olive oil (p = 0.01), and non-alcoholic beer (p = 0.02) were significantly higher in the non-CVD patients. The differences in CVD family history (p = 0.02) and adherence scores to specific groups/foods between the CVD and non-CVD patients may contribute to CVD risk in Saudi males. However, as the sample size of this study was small, further research is required to validate these findings.