While a plant-based diet can, for the most part, be beneficial for your heart, that only applies to those eating certain types of food, a new study says.
Researchers tracked the eating behaviour and the development of heart disease in 2,000 adults in Greece over a decade, which began in 2002.
Men who ate more plant-based foods had a 25% lower risk of heart disease compared to those who had more animal-based diets. The same correlation was seen in women, too, though the results were less dramatic; those who ate the fewest animal-based foods cut their heart disease risk by 11%.
“These findings highlight that even a small reduction in the daily consumption of animal-based products — principally the less healthy foods, such as processed meat products — accompanied by an increase in healthy plant-based foods may contribute to better cardiovascular health,” said lead author Demosthenes Panagiotakos, professor and vice rector at Harokopio University in Athens.
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Next, Panagiotakos and his research team analyzed people who ate more plant-based foods to determine whose diets were healthy (i.e. lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, legumes, etc.) and unhealthy (i.e. sweetened drinks, refined grains, potatoes, sweets, juices, etc.).
They learned that those eating healthy plant-based foods, and not those eating unhealthy plant-based foods, had a dramatic reduction in heart disease risk.
“Based on these results, it seems that simply following a plant-based or vegetarian diet is not enough to reduce cardiovascular disease risk,” Panagiotakos said in a news release.
“It is also important to focus on specific, healthful plant-based food groups to see a benefit in terms of reducing cardiovascular disease.”
Having said that, note that this research presented is still considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
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