Nutrition, Genetics, and Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Risk of CVD is determined by genetic and environmental factors. Numerous dietary factors have been linked to CVD beyond the conventional risk factors. In the past few years, genome-wide association studies have also identified more than 30 genomic loci that determine the susceptibility to cardiovascular events. Genetic background may interact with habitual dietary compositions in predisposition to CVD. In this context, large-scale studies of gene–diet interaction in prospective cohorts or randomized intervention trials have emerged to integrate genetic and dietary risk factors in predicting cardiovascular risk. The use of genetic variants to estimate a causal effect between dietary factors and CVD, namely mendelian randomization analysis, has also been considered in the nutritional epidemiology field. The purpose of this review is to present recent advances in research into dietary and genetic risk factors, gene–diet interactions, and mendelian randomization with regard to CVD risk.