Some evidence suggests that breast-feeding may modify food preferences in the later years of life. The present study aimed to provide a systematic review of observational studies investigating the association between exposure to breast milk and its duration with data-driven or hypothesis-driven (or diet quality scores) dietary patterns over 1 year of age. The databases of PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were searched for observational studies published from January 2010 until July 2021, which led to the identification of twenty-two eligible articles. There was considerable heterogeneity between studies in terms of assessment of exposure and outcome. Of the eleven studies that assessed data-driven dietary patterns, ten reported a significant association for at least one identified dietary pattern. Overall, being breast-fed and a longer duration of any/exclusive breast-feeding were associated with higher scores on healthy dietary patterns characterised mainly by high loadings of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In comparison, a negative association was found for unhealthy dietary patterns rich in foods with high content of added sugar, salt and saturated fats. In terms of diet quality scores, nine out of eleven studies reported a significant positive association between the duration of any breast-feeding and adherence to recommended healthy diets or dietary guidelines. In conclusion, the evidence from this review was generally in support of the hypothesis indicating breast-feeding is associated with healthy dietary patterns at later ages. However, due to the methodological limitations in the available studies, further research is warranted to elucidate solid evidence on this topic.

Certain dietary patterns may be related to the risk of CVD. We hypothesised that a plant-centred dietary pattern would be associated with a reduced risk of first myocardial infarction (MI). A case–control study of Norwegian men and postmenopausal women (age 45–75 years) was performed. A FFQ was administered, generally within 3 d after incident MI (n 106 cases). Controls (n 105) were frequency matched on sex, age and geographic location. On the FFQ, 190 items were categorised into thirty-five food groups and an a priori healthy diet pattern score was created. We estimated OR using logistic regression with adjustment for energy intake, family history of heart disease, marital status, current smoking, education and age. Among food groups, the risk of MI was significantly higher per sd of butter and margarine (OR 1·66 (95 % CI 1·12, 2·46)), and lower per sd of tomatoes (OR 0·53 (95 % CI 0·35, 0·79)), high-fat fish (OR 0·57 (95 % CI 0·38, 0·86)), wine (OR 0·58 (95 % CI 0·41, 0·83)), salad (OR 0·59 (95 % CI 0·40, 0·87)), wholegrain breakfast cereals (OR 0·64 (95 % CI 0·45, 0·90)), cruciferous vegetables (OR 0·66 (95 % CI 0·47, 0·93)) and non-hydrogenated vegetable oil (OR 0·68 (95 % CI 0·49, 0·95)). An abundance of cases were found to have a low a priori healthy diet pattern score. A dietary pattern emphasising nutrient-rich plant foods and high-fat fish and low in trans fatty acids was associated with decreased risk of MI among Norwegians.