Printed In USA. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR RE: "DIETARY FLAVONOID INTAKE AND RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN"

The prospective study by Yochum et al. (1) reveals a pro-tective association between intake of flavonoids and risk of death from coronary heart disease (CHD) in post-menopausal women. However, the evidence that flavonoids themselves are protective against CHD has several weak-nesses that require further investigation. The protective association between flavonoids and fatal CHD in the above study was largely due to certain fruits and vegetables, especially broccoli. However, in the multivariate analysis no correction was made for possible confounding by fruit and vegetables. Could it be that flavonoids were merely a surrogate measure of these foods? A major source of flavonoids is tea. In prospective studies the relative risk (RR) of death from CHD when comparing the highest and lowest consumers of tea has been reported a