Cardiovascular disease

Heart disease:

The American Heart Association 2021 Dietary Guidelines advocate for a plant predominant diet to improve cardiovascular health.
Reduced mortality, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, diabetes (Adventist Health Studies, Harvard Nurses Health Studies, EPIC studies which together represent over 780,000 patients and over 5 million person years of follow up)
Eating a Mediterrranean diet resulted in 50-70% lower risk recurrent heart disease (Ref. Lyon Diet Heart Study)

High LDL cholesterol is strongly associated with increased risk of heart disease. (Ref: American Heart Association)
Cholesterol in foods have a small influence on the LDL cholesterol values in blood for most people. For a few people, cholesterol in food can have a large influence on blood LDL.
Saturated fat in the diet is the most important factor that we can modify to reduce blood LDL cholesterol values. High saturated fat content is mostly in animal products, coconut oil and palm oil.
And the sooner we can bring LDL to good levels, the lower the risk of heart disease.

Keto-Med interventional crossover trial

40 people with pre diabetes or type 2 diabetes ate a ketogenic diet for 12 weeks and a Mediterranean diet for 12 weeks, in random order.

In a systematic review, Sherzai et al found that fruits, vegetables, and soy demonstrated a protective effect against strokes, variable findings were observed for fish, animal products, and whole grains. Adherence to DASH, Mediterranean, and prudent dietary patterns reduced the risk of stroke, whereas the Western dietary pattern was associated with increased stroke risk. Low-fat diet was not found to have a protective effect.
Their research found that strokes were 80% preventable by addressing lifestyle factors including nutrition. (Sherzai, Nutr. Review 2012)

“An increment of 1 serving per day of fruits or vegetables was associated with a 6% lower risk of ischemic stroke.” JAMA 1999.

Plant centered diets reduce the risk of stroke.