Decoding Your Diet (DYD)

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the US and worldwide, contributing to 1 in every 4 deaths. Compared to European Americans, African Americans have higher risks for cardiometabolic conditions. Our study aim is to determine if a high-quality American Heart Association (AHA) plant-based diet intervention can promote a genetic mutational signature that is protective against CVD. We will enroll 15 Black/African American cardiac patients from Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, GA. We will investigate from baseline to 3 months how the AHA plant-based diet intervention affected the regulation of several genes that are differentially expressed (DEG) and cluster together within biological pathways. We will integrate this information with WGS data, clinical factors, and ASA24-hour recalls. We expect that the AHA plant-based diet will be protective against deleterious DEG patterns that promote development of CVD. Our DEG mutational signatures in Black/African Americans with a high CVD burden can inform of changes patients can implement in their diet to decrease CVD risk burden. Our study will also fill gaps in providing new information regarding novel genomic-biological signatures with diet predictors and risk factors of CVD that can be useful in designing prevention and treatment strategies in precision medical care.