By Y Choi et al
Taken directly from the Journal of the American Heart Association
- The study expands on previous studies by exploring the time‐varying relationship between plant‐centered diet quality and risk of cardiovascular disease during the transition from young to middle adulthood.
- An important aspect is to clarify whether a flexible, plant‐centered diet improves cardiovascular outcomes, where nutritionally rich plant foods are the central component of the diet, and subsets of animal products may be integrated.
- Long‐term consumption of a plant‐centered diet and shifting to such a diet, starting in young adulthood, were associated with a lower cardiovascular disease risk.
What Are the Clinical Implications?
- Findings are consistent with assertions that a nutritionally rich plant‐centered diet help prevent the development of cardiovascular disease. However, it appears that the complete exclusion of animal foods from diet is not necessary.
- From a clinical and public health perspective, our findings support a recommendation of eating primarily nutritionally rich plant foods, but allowing small amounts of animal products (eg, low‐fat dairy products, nonfried fish, and nonfried poultry), to prevent early cardiovascular disease.
Reference
Choi Y, Larson N, Steffen LM, Schreiner PJ, Gallaher DD, Duprez DA, Shikany JM, Rana JS, Jacobs DR Jr. Plant-Centered Diet and Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease During Young to Middle Adulthood. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021 Aug 17;10(16):e020718. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.120.020718. Epub 2021 Aug 4. PMID: 34344159.
