The Study
Quality of plant-based diets in relation to 10-year cardiovascular disease risk: the ATTICA cohort study
This study found that people who ate more healthy plant foods (like fruits, veggies, beans) tended to have fewer heart problems 10 years later — but we can't say the food caused it, because maybe those people also exercised more or slept better. It's like noticing people who wear helmets ride bikes more safely — but we don't know if the helmet made them safer or if they're just more careful overall.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Eating healthy plants like whole grains, nuts, and veggies may help your heart, but eating unhealthy plant foods like sugary drinks and white bread might hurt it.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 559 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — a 68% lower risk is a big difference for heart health, and a 34% higher risk from bad plant foods is meaningful in a population.
- 2People who ate the most healthy plants had up to 68% lower heart disease risk.
- 3People who ate more unhealthy plant foods had 34% higher risk per 5-point increase in their bad-plant score.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
European Journal of Nutrition
Year
2022
Authors
M. Kouvari, T. Tsiampalis, C. Chrysohoou, E. Georgousopoulou, J. Skoumas, C. Mantzoros, C. Pitsavos, D. Panagiotakos
Related Content
Claims (6)
It doesn’t matter as much how much fat, carbs, or protein you eat—what really matters is whether the foods you eat are healthy or processed.
People in Greece who eat mostly healthy plant foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains tend to have lower heart disease risk—even when you account for things like how old they are, whether they smoke, or how much they weigh.
Not all plant foods are the same for your heart—eating things like whole grains and nuts may help lower your risk of heart disease, but eating sugary drinks and white bread might raise it.
People in Greece who eat lots of healthy plant foods like whole grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables over 10 years are much less likely to get heart disease than those who eat very little of these foods.
If Greek adults eat more unhealthy plant-based foods like white bread, soda, sweets, and fried potatoes, they’re 34% more likely to develop heart disease for every small increase in how unhealthy their diet is.
Eating a plant-based diet doesn’t seem to make Greek adults more or less likely to get heart disease, no matter if the plants are healthy or not—because the data is too fuzzy to tell for sure.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.