Whole, vegetable and fresh: here are the quality foods that protect the heart from heart attacks

Healthy foods. And quality ones. Preferring whole foods if possible. To protect the heart and preserve circulation, reducing the risk of heart attack and (hopefully) other cardiovascular diseases, what you eat matters more than the diet you follow. So it wouldn't be important to focus straight on low-carb and low-fat diets: what helps cardiovascular health are above all healthy, high-quality foods. In the end, therefore, it is better to focus on plant-based foods and whole grains and nuts, rather than reducing carbohydrates and/or fats according to difficult-to-follow eating patterns that may include the intake of foods that are not exactly healthy. A study presented at the NUTRITION 2025 congress of the American Society for Nutrition held in Orlando highlights this reality, with further support for the Mediterranean diet. The study was presented by Zhiyuan Wu , who works in the Qi Sun laboratory of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

A large-scale study

The study involved 43,430 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2016), 64,164 women in the Nurses' Health Study (1986-2018), and 92,189 women in the Nurses' Health Study II (1991-2019). In total, almost 200,000 subjects were followed for several decades, monitoring their eating habits and the possible development of heart disease. The researchers analyzed their diet starting from questionnaires filled out by the study participants, thus attributing a "license" of healthiness to the choices in the context of low-carb and low-fat diets. The researchers classified carbohydrates, fats and proteins from foods such as whole grains , fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes as high-quality, or healthy, nutrients, while carbohydrates from potatoes and refined grains, as well as saturated fats and proteins from animal-based foods, were classified as low-quality, or unhealthy. Several compounds in the blood were also measured for more than 10,000 study participants to assess the relationship between diet and metabolism. "This approach allowed us to better understand the biological effects of these diets and strengthened our findings," Wu said in a statement.

Healthy eating reduces risk

People who followed a healthy low-carb or low-fat diet had a reduced risk of developing coronary heart disease by about 15% compared to those who, even if they were on a low-carb and low-fat diet, did not consume particularly healthy foods. In short. Wu, in the note from the scientific association, has no doubts. "Our results suggest that improving the quality of food is essential to improving heart health - he indicates. Regardless of whether you follow a low-carb or low-fat diet, favoring whole, minimally processed and plant-based foods and limiting refined grains, sugars and foods of animal origin can significantly reduce the risk of coronary heart disease". Practical advice: if you want to improve your everyday diet to reduce cardiovascular risk, it is best to add whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, while reducing processed meats, refined carbohydrates and sugary foods. It is also important to check food labels and pay attention to low-quality added ingredients, such as added sugars in fruit juices and processed snacks. Because what you eat, obviously controlling in general terms the intake of lipids and carbohydrates, regardless of the chemical formulas and nutrients present in the diet, perhaps counts more than the nutritional choices at the table.

We follow the Mediterranean diet

“The results of this study represent further confirmation of a principle that is now widely consolidated in scientific literature: the distribution of macronutrients cannot ignore the overall quality of the foods consumed, which is therefore a determining factor in the prevention of cardiovascular disease,” comments Daniela Martini , professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Milan. “In short, we are faced with further proof of the value of our dietary model, made up of fresh foods and many vegetables. It is therefore not a new discovery, but further confirmation of the centrality of food choices based on foods mainly of plant origin and whole products to protect cardiovascular health. “We should not be surprised: we are perfectly in line with the evidence supporting the Mediterranean diet and, more generally, healthy and sustainable dietary models that are based on a large consumption of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and on the moderate intake of foods of animal origin that should not be eliminated but consumed less frequently,” concludes the expert.