![Following a plant-based diet can significantly lower a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) or dying from cardiovascular causes, according to new research published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health.[1] The study’s authors emphasized that a person can still occasionally eat meat, fish or dairy products and still see substantial benefits—the key is to keep such things to a minimum and embrace fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, teas and coffees.](/sites/default/files/styles/top_stories/public/2019-06/fruit-2305192_960_720.jpg.webp?itok=Fp0A6eiO)
Eating healthy plant-based foods can help young adults and older women reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to two new studies published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
In one analysis, researchers examined whether the long-term intake of a plant-centered diet and a move toward eating plant-centered foods beginning in young adulthood was linked with a lower risk of CVD in midlife.
“Earlier research was focused on single nutrients or single foods, yet there is little data about a plant-centered diet and the long-term risk of CVD,” lead author Yuni Choi, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (UMSPH) in Minneapolis, said in a prepared statement.
Choi and colleagues analyzed diet and the incidence of heart disease in 4,946 adults enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. At the time of enrollment, 1985-1986, participants were between 18 and 30 years of age and did did not have CVD. While 54.9% were women, 50.7% were Black.
According to the authors, plant‐centered diet quality was measured utilizing A Priori Diet Quality Score (APDQS), which assigns higher scores when there is a higher intake of nutritionally rich plant foods and a lower intake of high‐fat meat products and less healthy plant-based foods.
After 32 years of follow-up, researchers reported 289 study participants were diagnosed with CVD.
Overall, the team found that people who consumed the most nutritionally rich plant foods and fewer unfavorably rated animal products scored in the top 20% on the long-term diet quality score. These individuals were 52% less inclined to develop CVD.
Between years 7 and 20 of the study, when participants were between 25 and 50 years of age, those who consumed more plant foods and fewer animal products were 61% less liable to develop CVD down the road compared to those who had a diet that deteriorated.
“As opposed to existing diet quality scores that are usually based on small numbers of food groups, APDQS is explicit in capturing the overall quality of diet using 46 individual food groups, describing the whole diet that the general population commonly consumes," senior author David E. Jacobs Jr., PhD, a professor at UMSPH, explained in the same statement.
In a separate study, researchers found that consuming more plant-based foods that lower cholesterol, known as the “Portfolio Diet,” is also linked with lower risk of CVD in postmenopausal women.
In contrast to women who followed the Portfolio Diet infrequently, those who stuck to the diet were 11% less likely to develop any type of CVD, 14% less inclined to develop coronary heart disease and 17% less likely to develop heart failure.
“These results present an important opportunity, as there is still room for people to incorporate more cholesterol-lowering plant foods into their diets," senior author John Sievenpiper, MD, PhD, associate professor of nutritional sciences and medicine at the University of Toronto, said in the same statement. “With even greater adherence to the Portfolio dietary pattern, one would expect an association with even less cardiovascular events, perhaps as much as cholesterol-lowering medications. Still, an 11% reduction is clinically meaningful and would meet anyone’s minimum threshold for a benefit. The results indicate the Portfolio Diet yields heart-health benefits,”
The full studies can be read here.
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