— September 30, 2026
· A Cardiology Statement Puts Overall Diet Quality Ahead of Single Nutrients
On September 30, 2026, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) published a Scientific Statement on food and the heart in its flagship journal, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). Its title is “Food and Health: Nutrition for Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disease.” A six-member writing committee chaired by Frank B. Hu, who chairs the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, wrote it. The statement covers heart and blood-vessel disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and chronic kidney disease. Its central claim is that nutrition advice has moved “from isolated nutrients toward whole foods and dietary patterns that emphasize overall dietary quality, food choice, and degree of processing.”
A scientific statement is not a new study and not a formal clinical practice guideline. It is a review of research that already exists (randomised trials, long-term cohort studies that follow people’s eating habits, and laboratory work on mechanisms) together with the writing committee’s consensus recommendations. The ACC’s press release that day summed up the message this way: “Cardiovascular risk is driven less by the percentage of carbohydrates, fats or protein consumed and more by overall nutrition quality, food sources and degree of processing.”
The full statement is behind a paywall and was not open to this site. This report is built from the statement’s published abstract, the ACC’s press release and its “Journal Scan” summary (both dated September 30, 2026), and news interviews in which the committee chair described what the document says. Points that come only from those interviews are marked as such. Every recommendation below is the ACC’s, set beside what the 2025–2030 federal Dietary Guidelines, the American Heart Association’s 2021 dietary guidance and the 2026 cholesterol guideline say on the same questions.
Table of Contents
- At a Glance
- What the Statement Is and What It Recommends
- Fats, Saturated Fat and Plant Oils
- Sodium, Ultra-Processed Foods and Drinks
- Plant Foods, Animal Foods and Dietary Patterns
- GLP-1 Drugs, Food Is Medicine and Food Security
- How It Compares With Other Guidance
- How It Fits With Earlier Research
- What It Cannot Show and What Remains Unknown
- Sources and Primary Documents
- Key Research Papers
- Connections
At a Glance
- Document: “Food and Health: Nutrition for Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disease: 2026 ACC Scientific Statement,” published online in JACC on September 30, 2026, ahead of print (PubMed PMID 42814074; DOI 10.1016/j.jacc.2026.08.025).
- Who: a writing committee of six (Frank B. Hu, chair; Branko Beleslin; Michael J. Blaha; Penny M. Kris-Etherton; Hilary K. Seligman; Kim Allan Williams Sr.) for the American College of Cardiology.
- Kind of evidence: a review of existing trials, cohort studies and mechanistic research with consensus recommendations. No new participants, no new data.
- Main message: the quality of the whole diet, the foods it comes from and how processed those foods are matter more than the exact share of carbohydrate, fat or protein.
- What the statement says the evidence supports: replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats; more fibre and whole grains; less sodium and fewer ultra-processed foods, “particularly sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats.”
- Eating patterns named: Mediterranean, DASH, vegetarian and “other plant-rich dietary patterns.”
- Also covered: diet during treatment with GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs, “Food Is Medicine” programmes, food security, coffee, tea and alcohol.
- Where it parts from the federal guidelines: in an interview, the chair said the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans keep a 10%-of-calories limit on saturated fat while recommending foods high in it, and that, in his words, a healthy pattern “should have moderate consumption of high-saturated-fat foods.”
What the Statement Is and What It Recommends
A clinical practice guideline, such as the 2026 cholesterol guideline, labels each recommendation with its strength and the quality of the evidence behind it. A scientific statement is looser: experts review a field and agree on recommendations. The ACC describes this one as reviewing “current evidence on nutrition and cardiovascular health, including macronutrients, micronutrients, dietary patterns, ultra-processed foods and emerging nutrition-based interventions,” and offering “consensus recommendations on incorporating food and health into clinician/patient discussions on preventing and managing heart disease.”
The abstract opens by calling nutrition “a foundational determinant of cardiovascular health” and says that “suboptimal dietary patterns remain among the leading modifiable causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.” It places diet at the centre of what cardiologists now call cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome, the cluster of linked conditions in which obesity, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and heart disease feed one another.
The chair framed the document as a catch-up with how nutrition science has changed. “Suboptimal diet is a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), and diet and lifestyle modification is widely considered essential for both primary and secondary prevention,” Hu said in the ACC press release. “However, the concept of a ‘heart-healthy’ diet has evolved over time from nutrient-centric approaches to more holistic, food- and pattern-based strategies.”
Two of the six authors, Hu and Penny M. Kris-Etherton, were also co-authors of the American Heart Association’s 2021 dietary guidance, which took a similar pattern-based approach. The chair reported no relevant financial disclosures to Healio and TCTMD; the other authors’ disclosures are printed in the statement itself, which this site could not read.
The Seven Consensus Recommendations
The ACC press release lists the statement’s consensus recommendations. In the ACC’s own words, shortened only where marked:
- Diet and CKM syndrome. Diet and nutrition “play a central role in preventing and managing cardiovascular kidney metabolic syndrome … with emphasis on plant-forward eating patterns, lower sodium intake and limiting highly processed foods of poor nutritional quality.”
- Food security. “Access to healthy foods, affordability and other social drivers of health significantly affect diet quality. Food security should be considered across four domains: availability, affordability, accessibility and utilization of nutritious foods.”
- Quality over ratios. “Cardiovascular risk is driven less by the percentage of carbohydrates, fats or protein consumed and more by overall nutrition quality, food sources and degree of processing.”
- Fats, grains and fibre. “Current evidence supports replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats, particularly from sources like liquid plant oils, nuts, seeds and fish, and prioritizing whole grains and other high-fiber food. Foods high in saturated fat, refined starches and added sugars should be limited.”
- Drinks. The statement favours “prioritizing water and other unsweetened beverages and limiting sugar-sweetened beverages. Moderate consumption of coffee or tea can be part of a healthy dietary pattern. Alcohol consumption should generally be limited or avoided.”
- GLP-1 drugs. “GLP-1 receptor agonists can produce significant weight loss and cardiovascular benefits, but a nutrient-rich, high-quality diet remains important during treatment. Adequate intakes of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals are essential for maintaining overall health and preventing nutritional deficiencies.”
- Food Is Medicine. Programmes “that provide nutritious food as clinical interventions can improve diet quality, with growing evidence of benefits for clinical outcomes,” and successful use “will require integrating these programs into health care systems.”
The abstract closes on one summary sentence: current evidence “supports dietary patterns centered on minimally processed plant foods while limiting ultra-processed foods, particularly those high in refined starches, added sugars, sodium, or unhealthy fats, and emphasizing healthy sources of fats and proteins to reduce cardiovascular risk and improve population health.”
Fats, Saturated Fat and Plant Oils
On fat, the statement keeps the long-standing cardiology position: the abstract says trials, cohort studies and mechanistic work “consistently” support “replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats.” The press release names the replacement sources as “liquid plant oils, nuts, seeds and fish.” Asked what “plant-forward” means, Hu told TCTMD it includes “healthy sources of fats, especially unsaturated fats from plant oils like olive oil.” The statement’s wording is “liquid plant oils”. That covers olive oil, but also industrial seed oils such as canola, sunflower and corn oil, whose health effects are debated; the site’s seed-oil page reviews that debate. The summaries this site could read do not say how the statement handles the individual oils.
On foods high in saturated fat, the press release wording is that foods high in saturated fat, refined starches and added sugars “should be limited.” In his TCTMD interview, published October 2, Hu explained what that does and does not mean, and where he sees the federal guidelines differently:
“Even though the DGAs recommend no more than 10% of calories from saturated fats, it recommends some foods which actually contain a high amount of saturated fats, such as full-fat dairy products, red meat, and also animal fats like butter. I think that’s an area where we need more nuanced recommendations. It doesn’t mean that we should completely avoid saturated fat. I think a healthy dietary pattern should have moderate consumption of high-saturated-fat foods.”
The sources available to this site give no percentage-of-calories target for saturated fat in the ACC statement itself. Whether the full text sets one is not known here.
The trial evidence on cutting saturated fat is more mixed than the statement’s summaries show. The largest pooled analysis of long-term trials, a 2020 Cochrane review of 15 randomised trials in 56,675 people, found that cutting saturated fat lowered combined cardiovascular events by 17% (risk ratio 0.83; 95% CI 0.70 to 0.98). The same review found “little or no effect” on death from any cause (risk ratio 0.96; 95% CI 0.90 to 1.03) or on cardiovascular death (risk ratio 0.95; 95% CI 0.80 to 1.12). Its authors concluded that replacing saturated-fat calories with polyunsaturated fat or with carbohydrate “appear to be useful strategies,” while the effects of replacement with monounsaturated fat “are unclear”; data on replacement with protein were very limited. Trans fats, which the abstract’s phrase “unhealthy fats” also covers, are discussed on the site’s trans-fat page.
Sodium, Ultra-Processed Foods and Drinks
Sodium. “Lower sodium intake” is one of the three priorities named in the statement’s CKM recommendation, and the abstract lists reducing sodium among the changes the evidence “consistently supports.” The summaries available to this site give no milligram figure from the statement. For comparison, the 2025–2030 federal guidelines set a limit of “less than 2,300 mg per day” for people aged 14 and older. The trials below tie sodium most directly to high blood pressure and stroke.
Ultra-processed foods. The statement treats processing as a quality in its own right. Among the ultra-processed foods to reduce, the abstract names sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meats in particular. Its wider target is ultra-processed foods “high in refined starches, added sugars, sodium, or unhealthy fats.” The press release narrows the phrase to “highly processed foods of poor nutritional quality.” By that wording, the target is heavily processed products of low nutritional quality rather than every processed food. Hu, quoted by Healio, pointed to the food environment: “Our food environment makes highly processed foods of poor nutritional quality widely available and often inexpensive and convenient.”
Drinks. According to the press release, the statement puts water and other unsweetened drinks first, limits sugar-sweetened drinks, and says moderate coffee or tea “can be part of a healthy dietary pattern.” Healio reported that the statement defines moderate intake as “two to five 8 oz cups of filtered coffee or tea per day.” On alcohol, the statement’s position as given in the press release is that it “should generally be limited or avoided.”
The site reported on a related modelling study of ultra-processed food and deaths across 45 countries on its June 26, 2026 news page.
Plant Foods, Animal Foods and Dietary Patterns
Patterns. The abstract states that “Mediterranean, DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), vegetarian, and other plant-rich dietary patterns demonstrate favorable effects on blood pressure, lipids, glycemic control, and body weight, and are consistently associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease and mortality.” The press release describes these patterns as generally emphasising “vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, legumes, healthy protein sources, and unsaturated fats.”
Plant-forward, not plant-only. Hu told TCTMD that plant-forward eating “doesn’t mean that it has to be vegetarian or vegan. It just means that [there should be] more emphasis on minimally processed plant foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts.” Whole grains and fibre get their own line in the recommendations (“prioritizing whole grains and other high-fiber food”); the site covers dietary fibre and lentils and other legumes in depth.
Animal foods. Fish appears in the press release as a source of unsaturated fat. Processed meats are named in the abstract as something to reduce. On red meat, the news reports do not agree on how strongly the statement words it. Healio wrote that the authors describe a heart-healthy diet as one that includes more fish and seafood “while avoiding red and processed meats,” and listed “low intake of red meats” as a key takeaway. The Harvard Chan School’s news office wrote of “limiting, if not avoiding altogether, red and processed meats.” Hu’s own words about foods high in saturated fat, including red meat, were “moderate consumption.” The abstract itself names only processed meats. The summaries this site could read say nothing specific about eggs or dairy. Dairy fat comes up only in Hu’s description of the federal guidelines.
Protein. Hu told TCTMD that the statement puts “more emphasis on different food sources of protein, not just emphasizing the total amount of protein in the diet.” The federal guidelines, by contrast, set a numerical protein target, described below.
GLP-1 Drugs, Food Is Medicine and Food Security
GLP-1 drugs. The statement takes up GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide, now widely prescribed for weight loss and diabetes. It accepts their benefit: the drugs “can produce significant weight loss and cardiovascular benefits.” In the SELECT trial, in 17,604 adults without diabetes with existing heart disease and overweight or obesity, weekly semaglutide lowered the rate of cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke from 8.0% to 6.5% over a mean of about 40 months (hazard ratio 0.80; 95% CI 0.72 to 0.90). The drug’s manufacturer funded that trial.
The statement’s point is that the drugs do not replace food quality. The press release says “a nutrient-rich, high-quality diet remains important during treatment” and that adequate protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals are “essential for maintaining overall health and preventing nutritional deficiencies.” GLP-1 drugs reduce appetite, so people taking them eat less food overall; that is why nutrient intake comes up at all. Healio reported that the authors recommend ongoing nutrition counselling for people prescribed a GLP-1 drug, from a team that could include a registered dietitian nutritionist and a behavioural therapist. Hu told TCTMD that the idea patients “can just take a GLP-1, statins, and other medications” instead of eating well “is certainly not true,” and told Healio that “healthy eating and modern medicine should be viewed as complementary, not competing approaches.”
Food Is Medicine. This term covers programmes in which health systems supply food as part of care: medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions and grocery deliveries. The statement says these programmes “can improve diet quality, with growing evidence of benefits for clinical outcomes.” The wording separates two claims: improved diet quality, and “growing” evidence of better clinical outcomes. The site reported one such trial, of grocery deliveries in people with type 2 diabetes, on its July 21, 2026 news page.
Food security. The statement asks clinicians to look at four domains: whether nutritious food is available, affordable, accessible and usable (for example, whether a household can store and cook it). Healio reported that the barriers the statement lists include lack of nutrition knowledge, cost, access, social and cultural influences, marketing and the palatability of ultra-processed foods.
How It Compares With Other Guidance
The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (US Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, released January 7, 2026; see the site’s February 3, 2026 report). The two documents agree on a lot. The federal guidelines also centre on whole foods. They state: “Avoid sugar-sweetened beverages, such as sodas, fruit drinks, and energy drinks.” They ask for a sharp cut in highly processed, refined carbohydrates, set 2–4 servings of whole grains a day and keep sodium under 2,300 mg a day. Hu told TCTMD: “Both guidelines emphasize an overall healthy eating pattern—eat more minimally processed foods and reduce higher consumption of ultraprocessed food.”
The differences are about fat and protein. The federal guidelines list “meats, poultry, eggs, omega-3–rich seafood, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy, olives, and avocados” as sources of healthy fats. They say “when consuming dairy, include full-fat dairy with no added sugars” (three servings a day on a 2,000-calorie pattern). For cooking they name olive oil first and add that “other options can include butter or beef tallow.” Yet they keep the rule that “saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10% of total daily calories”, and they add that “more high-quality research is needed to determine which types of dietary fats best support long-term health.” They set a protein target of 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight a day from animal and plant foods. The ACC statement, by the chair’s account, focuses on swapping saturated for unsaturated fat and on the source of protein rather than the amount.
The American Heart Association’s 2021 Dietary Guidance (Lichtenstein and colleagues, Circulation). This statement had already moved from nutrients to patterns, five years earlier. It listed ten features of a heart-healthy pattern. They include whole grains; protein “mostly plants; regular intake of fish and seafood; low-fat or fat-free dairy products; and if meat or poultry is desired, choose lean cuts and unprocessed forms”; “liquid plant oils rather than tropical oils and partially hydrogenated fats”; “minimally processed foods instead of ultra-processed foods”; foods with little or no salt; and, on alcohol, “if you do not drink alcohol, do not start.” The low-fat dairy wording is the AHA’s 2021 position. The ACC summaries available to this site do not mention dairy fat, so it could not be checked whether the 2026 statement repeats it.
The 2026 cholesterol (dyslipidemia) guideline (ACC, AHA and nine other organisations, published March 13, 2026; see the site’s March 14, 2026 report). Its main dietary recommendation for lowering LDL cholesterol is a Class 1 (strong) recommendation backed by moderate-quality randomised evidence (level B-R). It reads: “In adults and children with or without ASCVD, a diet emphasizing intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and fiber, while replacing saturated and trans fats with dietary monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, is recommended to decrease LDL-C levels and reduce ASCVD risk.” (ASCVD is atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the artery-clogging kind behind most heart attacks and strokes.) Its supporting text names the foods in which saturated fat “is typically found”: “red meat, butter, high-fat milk, coconut oil, and palm and palm kernel oil.” It adds that “the health benefits of this exchange can be offset by excess processed sugar and other aspects of ultra-processed foods.” On fat, the ACC statement and the cholesterol guideline point the same way; the federal guidelines keep a 10%-of-calories ceiling but name several foods high in saturated fat among their sources of healthy fat. LDL cholesterol itself is measured on a lipid panel.
How It Fits With Earlier Research
The statement’s main claims rest on research that has built up over decades. A few of the landmark studies, with what each actually measured:
- How much disease diet drives. The Global Burden of Disease 2017 diet analysis estimated that 11 million deaths worldwide in 2017 were attributable to dietary risks. The leading risks were high sodium (about 3 million deaths), low whole-grain intake (about 3 million) and low fruit intake (about 2 million). These are model estimates built on observational data, with wide uncertainty.
- Mediterranean pattern. In the PREDIMED trial, 7,447 Spanish adults aged 55 to 80 at high cardiovascular risk were assigned to a Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet with mixed nuts, or advice to follow a reduced-fat diet. Over a median of 4.8 years, major cardiovascular events were lower in both Mediterranean groups (hazard ratios 0.69 and 0.72). The first 2013 report was withdrawn after departures from the randomisation protocol were found, and the 2018 re-analysis is the version cited now. The site has a page on the PREDIMED nut arm.
- DASH and sodium. In the DASH-Sodium feeding trial (412 adults), the DASH pattern at the lowest sodium level lowered systolic blood pressure by 7.1 mm Hg in people without high blood pressure and 11.5 mm Hg in people with it, compared with a typical American diet at a high sodium level.
- Sodium and hard outcomes. In the SSaSS trial in 600 Chinese villages (20,995 adults who had had a stroke, or were aged 60 or older with high blood pressure), replacing ordinary salt with a substitute of 75% sodium chloride and 25% potassium chloride lowered stroke (rate ratio 0.86), major cardiovascular events (0.87) and death (0.88) over about 4.7 years.
- Fibre and whole grains. A 2019 series of meta-analyses in The Lancet (185 cohort studies and 58 trials) found, in the cohort data, 15–30% lower death and heart-disease rates in people with the highest fibre intakes, with the largest reductions at 25–29 g a day, and similar findings for whole grains. The certainty was graded moderate for fibre and low to moderate for whole grains.
- Ultra-processed foods. In a 2019 inpatient trial, 20 adults ate about 508 kcal more a day on an ultra-processed diet than on an unprocessed one matched for calories offered, sugar, sodium and fibre, gaining 0.9 kg in two weeks. A 2024 umbrella review in The BMJ (45 pooled analyses, about 9.9 million people) linked higher ultra-processed food intake with a 50% higher risk of cardiovascular death, though the GRADE certainty for that finding was “very low.”
- Saturated fat. The 2020 Cochrane review described above: fewer combined cardiovascular events, little or no effect on total or cardiovascular deaths.
These studies point the same way as the statement, and they also show how much of the evidence comes from cohort studies rather than long trials with hard outcomes.
What It Cannot Show and What Remains Unknown
- It is a review, not new evidence. The statement adds no new participants or measurements. Its abstract does not describe a systematic literature search or a formal grading of each recommendation, which the cholesterol guideline does provide.
- Much nutrition evidence is observational. Many of the associations the statement draws on (fibre, ultra-processed food, whole grains) come from cohort studies. These can show that two things go together but cannot by themselves prove that one causes the other. The ultra-processed food umbrella review rated most of its pooled findings as low or very low certainty.
- Few diet trials measure deaths. Long trials with heart attacks, strokes or deaths as the outcome are rare and hard to run. In the largest pooled analysis of saturated-fat trials, the reduction appeared in combined events but not in deaths.
- “Ultra-processed” still lacks an agreed definition. The statement adds the qualifier “of poor nutritional quality,” and in 2025 the FDA and USDA asked the public for help defining ultra-processed foods. Until a definition is settled, studies and guidelines may not mean the same foods by the term.
- The fine print was not seen here. The full statement may contain sodium targets, saturated-fat targets, wording on eggs, dairy or particular oils, and evidence tables that its abstract and press materials do not show. This report gives no figure from it that its public summaries do not contain.
- Open questions the documents themselves name. Hu called the handling of foods high in saturated fat “an area where we need more nuanced recommendations,” and the federal guidelines say more research is needed on which fats best support long-term health. Still open: how full-fat dairy, red meat and different plant oils compare; how diet quality affects long-term outcomes on GLP-1 drugs; and whether Food Is Medicine programmes reduce heart events, not only improve diets.
Sources and Primary Documents
The statement’s identifiers were checked against PubMed and Crossref; its full text is paywalled. Quotations attributed to the statement come from its abstract and the ACC’s releases; the chair’s come from the interviews named.
- Hu FB, Beleslin B, Blaha MJ, Kris-Etherton PM, Seligman HK, Williams KA Sr (2026). Food and Health: Nutrition for Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disease: 2026 ACC Scientific Statement: A Report of the American College of Cardiology. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, published online September 30, 2026, ahead of print. — doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2026.08.025 · PubMed PMID: 42814074
- American College of Cardiology (September 30, 2026). Overall Diet Quality Key to Heart Health (press release). — acc.org press release
- American College of Cardiology (September 30, 2026). ACC Scientific Statement Says Overall Diet Quality Key to Maintaining Heart Health (Journal Scan). — acc.org Journal Scan
- US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Health and Human Services (January 2026). Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030. — Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (PDF)
- Lichtenstein AH, Appel LJ, Vadiveloo M, Hu FB, Kris-Etherton PM, Rebholz CM, Sacks FM, Thorndike AN, Van Horn L, Wylie-Rosett J (2021). 2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation 144(23):e472-e487. — doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001031 · PubMed PMID: 34724806
- Blumenthal RS, Morris PB, Gaudino M, Johnson HM, Anderson TS, Bittner VA, et al. (2026). 2026 ACC/AHA/AACVPR/ABC/ACPM/ADA/AGS/APhA/ASPC/NLA/PCNA Guideline on the Management of Dyslipidemia: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 87(19):2624-2757 (published online March 13, 2026; also in Circulation, doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001423). — doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2025.11.016 · PubMed PMID: 41824590
News coverage used for the chair’s quotations and for details not in the abstract: Healio, September 30, 2026 (“ACC: Discussion of heart-healthy diet should be part of routine clinical care”); TCTMD, October 2, 2026 (“ACC Statement Underscores Importance of Healthy Eating for Managing CVD”); and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health news, October 1, 2026 (“Guidance for eating a heart healthy diet”).
Key Research Papers
Background research for the statement’s main claims, in the order discussed above. Each entry was checked against PubMed before it was written down.
- Afshin A, Sur PJ, Fay KA, Cornaby L, Ferrara G, Salama JS, et al. (2019). Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 393(10184):1958-1972. — PubMed PMID: 30954305
- Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvadó J, Covas MI, Corella D, Arós F, et al. (2018). Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts. New England Journal of Medicine 378(25):e34. — PubMed PMID: 29897866
- Sacks FM, Svetkey LP, Vollmer WM, Appel LJ, Bray GA, Harsha D, et al. (2001). Effects on blood pressure of reduced dietary sodium and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. New England Journal of Medicine 344(1):3-10. — PubMed PMID: 11136953
- Neal B, Wu Y, Feng X, Zhang R, Zhang Y, Shi J, et al. (2021). Effect of Salt Substitution on Cardiovascular Events and Death. New England Journal of Medicine 385(12):1067-1077. — PubMed PMID: 34459569
- Reynolds A, Mann J, Cummings J, Winter N, Mete E, Te Morenga L (2019). Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Lancet 393(10170):434-445. — PubMed PMID: 30638909
- Hall KD, Ayuketah A, Brychta R, Cai H, Cassimatis T, Chen KY, et al. (2019). Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake. Cell Metabolism 30(1):67-77.e3. — PubMed PMID: 31105044
- Lane MM, Gamage E, Du S, Ashtree DN, McGuinness AJ, Gauci S, et al. (2024). Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses. BMJ 384:e077310. — PubMed PMID: 38418082
- Hooper L, Martin N, Jimoh OF, Kirk C, Foster E, Abdelhamid AS (2020). Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 8(8):CD011737. — PubMed PMID: 32827219
- Lincoff AM, Brown-Frandsen K, Colhoun HM, Deanfield J, Emerson SS, Esbjerg S, et al. (2023). Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Obesity without Diabetes. New England Journal of Medicine 389(24):2221-2232. — PubMed PMID: 37952131
PubMed Topic Searches
Connections
- News Archive
- New Dietary Guidelines Take Aim at Ultra-Processed Food — the 2025–2030 federal guidelines
- New Cholesterol Guideline Lowers LDL Targets — the 2026 dyslipidemia guideline
- Cardiology — the site’s heart and blood-vessel disease section
- Coronary Artery Disease — the artery disease behind most heart attacks
- Hypertension — high blood pressure and sodium
- Cholesterol Management — LDL cholesterol and how it is treated
- Mediterranean Diet — the most-studied eating pattern
- DASH Diet — the blood-pressure eating pattern and its trials
- Whole Grain vs Refined Wheat — whole grains, heart disease and diabetes
- Dietary Fiber — fibre types, sources and research
- Sodium — the electrolyte and the effects of excess
- Ultra-Processed Foods — the NOVA classification and the evidence
- Olive Oil for Heart Health — the plant oil the chair named
- Seed Oils — the research debate over industrial seed oils
- GLP-1 Receptor Agonists — how the drugs work, benefits and risks
- Grocery Deliveries Lower Blood Sugar in Type 2 Diabetes — a Food Is Medicine trial