Heart disease is the leading killer of men and women worldwide, but there are ways to significantly reduce your risk.
Along with regular exercise (not smoking, or drinking to excess) a healthy diet is a key way to keep heart disease at bay.
These diets meet the guidelines of the American Heart Association;
- 1. The DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) is 100% aligned with AHA goals for heart-healthy eating. It’s low in processed, high-sodium foods
- 2. The Pescatarian Diet, allows dairy, eggs, fish & other seafood but no meat or poultry, is 92% aligned
- 3. The Mediterranean Diet is 89% aligned. It recommends a small glass of red wine each day & does not limit salt
- 4. The Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian Diet (allows dairy and eggs & variations that include one or the other) is 86% aligned
- 5. The Vegan Diet is plant-based (such as vegetables, grains, nuts and fruits) and foods made from plants no foods that come from animals, including dairy and eggs
Rounding out the list 6. Low Fat, 7. Very Low-Fat (TLC, Volumetrics) 8. Low-Carbohydrate (Zone, South Beach) 9. Paleo and 10. Very Low-Carbohydrate/ Ketogenic.
Low-carb diets, like Paleo and Atkins (and other various Keto diets) were in the bottom tier due to their emphasis on red meat, whole dairy and saturated fats, as well as limited fruit and vegetable intake.
Christopher Gardner, a research professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center in California who directs its Nutrition Studies Research Group says,
We basically were trying to say a diet doesn’t have to be 100 to be good.
All of the diets in the top tier are plant-based, and if they are off base a bit aren’t hard to fix.
Paleo and keto, however, really can’t be fixed. You’d have to completely overhaul them.”
Preventive cardiologist Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health, says,
If you asked me in my heart of hearts do I think we should have been banging the drum about nutrition for the last 100 years? Yes.
So every time we can bang the drum a little more, I’m always in favor.
It’s hard to adhere to a diet in a society which allows ultraprocessed comfort foods like bacon-on-a-stick to be the norm, and asking society to change a major tenant of everyday living is going to be very challenging.
But I would also tell you the plant-based food movement is the fastest-growing food movement in the country.
So there’s hope.”
On that note, do try eating less meat. With 8 billion people on the planet (and growing to 10 billion in the next 20 years) besides being cruel, expensive and unhealthy, it is NOT sustainable.
A 🆕 scientific statement evaluates how well 10 popular eating patterns align with AHA nutrition guidance, offering a valuable tool for both clinicians and consumers to understand and adopt heart-healthy dietary patterns.
— AHA Science (@AHAScience) April 27, 2023
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(Photo, AHA; via CNN)
