Exploring the influence of cheese consumption on blood metabolites: Implications for disease pathogenesis, with a focus on essential hypertension.

There is growing interest in understanding how dietary choices impact health outcomes through their effects on blood metabolites. One such dietary choice is cheese consumption, which has been subject to debate regarding its health implications. Cheese is high in fat, particularly saturated fats, which have historically been associated with cardiovascular disease. Cheese intake influences the levels of metabolites in the blood, such as amino acids, cholesterol, fatty acids, and triglycerides. Although the relationship between cheese consumption and hypertension has been revealed in multiple studies as being not negative; some controversy still remains. Also, the relationship between cheese consumption and metabolites has not yet been fully elucidated, which is important as the effects of cheese intake on metabolites may further affect human health.

Mendelian randomization (MR) provides a robust framework for investigating causal relationships between dietary exposures and health outcomes by leveraging genetic variants as instrumental variables (IV). Thus, with the aid of MR, the study cited aimed to explore the influence of cheese consumption on blood metabolites and its implications for disease pathogenesis, with a particular focus on essential hypertension.

The Genome-wide association study data from the Open GWAS project (https:// gwas .mrcieu .ac.uk/) and FinnGen Biobank (https:// www. finngen.fi/ en) were analyzed, focusing on cheese intake, 249 metabolic traits, and hypertension. Instrumental variables were selected based on strict criteria, and causal relationships were assessed using inverse variance weighing, weighted-median, and MR-Egger methods.

The results showed that cheese consumption significantly influenced 118 metabolic traits, including amino acids, cholesterol esters, and triglycerides. Notably, it was linked to a reduction in hypertension risk (odds ratio = 0.652; 95% CI: 0.541–0.785). Mediation analysis identified 50 metabolic traits as intermediaries, accounting for 0.88% to 8.25% of the total effect.

In conclusion, the study revealed that cheese consumption significantly affected various blood metabolites but did not increase the risk of essential hypertension. In fact, it appeared to reduce hypertension risk, likely through its effect on specific metabolic pathways. The findings suggest that moderate cheese intake may offer cardiovascular benefits, although further research is needed to confirm these results and understand their broader implications.