The Study
Global, regional and national burden of ischemic heart disease attributable to suboptimal diet, 1990-2023: a Global Burden of Disease study.
This study looked at lots of people around the world and found that those who eat less healthy foods (like not enough fruit or too much salt) tend to have more heart disease. But it doesn't prove that eating bad food makes you get heart disease—it just shows they often happen together.
Analysis score
Maximum 85 for a systematic review with meta-analysis.
Where the score came from
Not eating enough healthy foods like nuts, whole grains, and fruit, and eating too much salt, is making a lot of people die from heart disease.
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 533 / 100
Quality score
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of cohort studies. They sit above a single cohort study but below a single randomized trial, because the underlying evidence is still observational.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — this is a huge number, equivalent to the entire population of a large country dying from preventable diet-related heart disease each year.
- 2In 2023, bad diets caused 4 million heart disease deaths and 97 million years of poor health worldwide.
- 3Not eating nuts/seeds was the biggest problem, causing nearly 10 deaths per 100,000 people.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Nature medicine
Year
2026
Authors
Sooji Lee, Hayeon Lee, Yejun Son, J. Shin, Hasan Aalruz, Y. Abate, C. Abbafati, Nasir Abbas, Elahe Abbaspour, H. Abbastabar, S. ElHafeez, P. Abdi, Wakgari Mosisa Abdisa, Mohammad Abdollahi, M. Abdoun, R. Abdulkader, Auwal Abdullahi, O. Abiodun, O. Abiodun, R. Aboagye, S. Abohashem, Lucas Guimarães Abreu, Dariush Abtahi, A. Abubakar, Bilyaminu Abubakar, Eman Abu-Gharbieh, Hana J. Abukhadijah, Salahdein Aburuz, Ahmed Abu-Zaid, M. M. Adane, I. Y. Addo, O. Adebayo, Kamoru A. Adedokun, R. Adedoyin, C. Adetunji, J. B. Adetunji, T. AdeyeOluwa, Kishor Adhikari, U. Adiga, Qorinah Estiningtyas Sakilah Adnani, A. Afolabi, Arya Afrooghe, M. Afzal, Saira Afzal, Prerna Agarwal, Feleke Doyore Agide, Williams Agyemang-Duah, B. Ahinkorah, Aqeel Ahmad, Danish Ahmad, Firdos Ahmad, Muayyad M. Ahmad, Sajjad Ahmad, Ali Ahmadi, Ayman Ahmed, H. Ahmed, M. Ahmed, Mushood Ahmed, Syed Anees Ahmed, Marjan Ajami, Budi Aji, M. Akkaif, Alaa Amiry, S. Awaidy, M. Qadire, T. Alalwan, Z. Al-Aly, K. Alam, Fahmi Y. Al-Ashwal, Mohammed ALBashtawy, Khalifah A. Aldawsari, W. Aldhaleei, A. Algammal, F. Alhalaiqa, Abid Ali, Akhtar Ali, Endale Alemayehu Ali, Mohammad Ali, M. Ali, Rafat Ali, Syed Shujait Shujait Ali, Waad Ali, Gianfranco Alicandro, S. M. Alif, Samah W. Al-Jabi, Syed Mohamed Aljunid, A. Alkhatib, Sabah Al-Marwani, Mohmmad Minwer Alnaeem, Mahmoud A. Alomari, Saleh A Alqahtani, Ahmad Alrawashdeh, S. Alrousan, Mohammed Alsabri, W. Alseragi, Z. Altaany, Awais Altaf, N. Alvis-Guzmán, Hassan Alwafi, M. Al-Wardat, Y. Al-Worafi, Safwat Aly, Mohammad Sharif Ibrahim Alyahya, K. Alzoubi, Masoud Mohammadi, Reza Amani, A. Amegah, T. Amin, Hubert Amu, D. Amugsi, Ga Amusa, R. Ancuceanu, Abhishek Anil, Rockson Ansong, Saeid Anvari, S. Anwar, A. Anyasodor, J. Arabloo, A. Aravkin, D. Areda, B. Armocida, Johan Ärnlöv, M. Arooj, A. Artamonov, Javed Ashraf, Tahira Ashraf, Bernard Kwadwo Yeboah Asiamah-Asare, A. Askarinejad, T. Astell-Burt, S. Athari, P. Atorkey, M. Awoke, A. Awotidebe, Lemessa Assefa A Ayana, M. Azhar, Shahkaar Aziz, H. Azizian, A. Azzam, D. Azzolino, G. B, G. R. Babu, Nasser Bagheri, Pegah Bahrami Taghanaki, Razieh Bahreini, Ruhai Bai, A. Baig, Jennifer L. Baker, Shankar M. Bakkannavar, Ovidiu Constantin Baltatu, Kiran Bam, Maciej Banach, Hansi Bansal, Mainak Bardhan, Till Bärnighausen, H. Barqawi, Lingkan Barua, Z. Basharat, Somaye Bashiri Aliabadi, Rehana Basri, Mohammad-Mahdi Bastan, S. Basu, Kavita Batra, M. Bayati, Mulat Tirfie Bayih, Priyamadhaba Behera, Asnake Gashaw Belayneh, U. Belgaumi, G. Bilgin, Michelle L. Bell, O. Bello, Isabela M. Benseñor, Catherine P. Benziger, Z. Berezvai, Alemshet Yirga Berhie, Habtamu B. Beyene, Kebede A. Beyene, A. Bhadoria, A. Bhagavathula, N. Bhala, Ravi G. Bharadwaj, Pankaj Bhardwaj, Sonu M M Bhaskar, A. Bhat, Vivek Bhat, G. K. Bhatti, Jasvinder Singh Bhatti, Rajbir Bhatti, Cem Bilgin, M. Birhan, Bijit Biswas, B. Bizzozero-Peroni, A. Boloor, Sri Harsha Boppana, Hamed Borhany, Jyoti Brahmaiah, Dejana Braithwaite, Michael Brauer, H. Brenner, Gabrielle Britton, Raffaele Bugiardini, Norma B. Bulamu, L. Bulto, Katrin Burkart, Yasser K. Bustanji, Z. Butt, Daniela Călina, L. Cámera, L. A. Campos, Ismael Campos-Nonato, A. Capodici, F. Carvalho, M. Carvalho, C. Castañeda-Orjuela, A. Catapano, Monica Cattafesta, M. Cattaruzza, L. Cegolon, Francieli Cembranel, E. Cenko, A. Cernigliaro, S. Chakraborty, Jeffrey Shi Kai Chan, R. Chandika, Shilpa Chandran, A. Chaudhary, Hana Chen, Hui Chen, Simiao Chen, N. Chew, Gerald Chi, Fatemeh Chichagi, Ritesh Chimoriya, Patrick R. Ching, Jesus Lorenzo Chirinos-Caceres, William C. S Cho, Dong-Woo Choi, Bryan Chong, Hou In Chou, Sonali Gajanan Choudhari, E. Chowdhury, Rajiv Chowdhury, D. Chu, I. Chukwu, S. Chung, Arrigo Francesco Giuseppe Cicero, Iolanda Cioffi, M. Criqui, N. Cruz-Martins, Xiaolin Cui, A. G. da Silva, Nour Dababo, O. Dadras, X. Dai, Zhaoli Dai, G. Damiani, Emanuele D’Amico, S. Darcho, Saswati Das, A. Dascălu, N. Dash, Cornelius Dassah, K. Davletov, Cristian Del Bo’, E. Denova-Gutiérrez, Ismail Dergaa, Emina Dervišević, Aragaw Tesfaw Desale, Vinoth Gnana Chellaiyan Devanbu, Devananda Devegowda, Syed Masudur Rahman Dewan, K. Dhama, M. Dhimal, M. Pumpo, Adriana Dima, Thao Huynh Phuong Do, C. B. do Prado, S. Doaei, P. Doegah, Sushil Dohare, O. Doshi, Rajkumar Doshi, Robert Kokou Dowou, V. Dsouza, Bruce B Duncan, A. Durães, Arkadiusz Marian Dziedzic, A. E’mar, Alireza Ebrahimi, F. Eghbali, Debela Ejeta, Michael Ekholuenetale, R. E. El Arab, I. El Bayoumy, I. Sayed, Mohamed Ahmed Eladl, I. Elgendy, Muhammed Elhadi, W. El‐Huneidi, Ashraf A El-Metwally, Adel B. Elmoselhi, M. Elnaem, Ibrahim Elsohaby, Chadi Eltaha, T. Emeto, S. Eskandarieh, Maysa Eslami, Juan Espinosa-Montero, Farshid Etaee, Adewale Oluwaseun Fadaka, I. Fadhil, A. Fagbamigbe, A. Fahim, S. Fahimi, I. Fakhradiyev, Luca Falzone, Seyed Nooredin Faraji, Mohammad Fareed, Jacopo Farina, S. Farina, C. Farinha, MoezAlIslam Ezzat Mahmoud Faris, Hossein Farrokhpour, Timur Fazylov, Alireza Feizkhah, G. Fekadu, Xiaoqi Feng, R. Fernández-Jiménez, N. Ferreira, G. Fetensa, Bikila Regassa Feyisa, Florian Fischer, MO Folayan, Daniela Fortuna, Matteo Foschi, Maryam Fotouhi, Amina Fraij, S. G., Péter Gaál, M. Gadanya, A. Gaidhane, Abduzhappar Gaipov, Yaseen Galali, S. Gallus, W. G. Gastélum Espinoza, R. Gautam, M. W. Gebregergis, T. G. Gebremeskel, Lemma Getacher, Molla Getie, Delaram J. Ghadimi, F. Ghadirian, Kazem Ghaffari, M. Ghafourifard, S. Ghamari, Mohammadreza Ghasemi, R. Ghazy, M. Gholamalizadeh, Zainab Gholami, Zeinab Ghorbani, Pooyan Ghorbani Vajargah, A. Gil, Tiffany K. Gill, Alemea girmay, Logan M. Glasstetter, L. Göbölös, Mahaveer Golechha, Pouya Goleij, A. Goulart, A. Grada, Michale Grivna, Giuseppe Grosso, Ashna Grover, Habtamu Alganeh Guadie, Zhongyang Guan, G. Guarducci, Mohammed Ibrahim Mohialdeen Gubari, Avirup Guha, Snigdha Gulati, D. Gunawardane, Bhawna Gupta, R. Gupta, Sapna Gupta, Veera Gupta, V. K. Gupta, V. Gupta, R. S. Gutiérrez-Murillo, Dagim Habteyesus, Mostafa Hadei, Najah R. Hadi, Zahra Hadian, D. Haile, R. Hamadeh, N. Hamdy, G. Hankey, Fahad Hanna, Obaid I Haque, Kassandra L. Harding, A. Hargono, N. I. Harlianto, J. M. Haro, Eka Mishbahatul Marah Has, H. Hasani, Reza Hashempour, Mohammad Hashem Hashempur, M. Hasnain, Amr Hassan, I. Hassan, Nageeb Hassan, Rasmus J. Havmoeller, S. Hay, Khezar Hayat, Youssef Hbid, Jiawei He, Qiang He, Jeffrey J. Hebert, G. Heidari, Mehdi Hemmati, B. Herrera-Serna, Y. Hiraike, Mai Hoang, Ramesh Holla, Md. Belal Hossain, Seyed Kianoosh Hosseini, Hassan Hosseinzadeh, M. Hostiuc, S. Hostiuc, Junjie Huang, Javid Hussain, H. Huynh, Ramzi Ibrahim, U. Ibrahim, Anel Ibrayeva, Nayu Ikeda, A. Ikiroma, O S Ilesanmi, Irena Ilic, Milena Ilic, M. Imam, M. Immurana, Arit Inok, M. Iqhrammullah, Benni Iskandar, M. Islam, N. Ismail, H. Iso, G. Isola, M. Iwagami, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Vinothini J, Louis Jacob, A. Jafarzadeh, N. Jahanmehr, H. Jahrami, A. Jain, A. A. Jairoun, M. Jakovljevic, Mohamed Jalloh, Safayet Jamil, Talha Jawaid, Sathish Kumar Jayapal, S. Jayaram, R. Jayasinghe, Felix K. Jebasingh, Gwang-Hun Jeong, B. Jeswani, Anil K Jha, Zixiang Ji, Mohammad Jokar, J. B. Jonas, Nitin Joseph, Charity Ehimwenma Joshua, J. Jozwiak, M. Jürisson, Malik E Juweid, Anupam Jyoti, Alia Kabir, Z. Kabir, A. Kakkar, Sanjay Kalra, Ashwin Kamath, Ramat T. Kamorudeen, S. Kankam, E. Kanmiki, E. Karagiannidis, P. Karakasis, Aliasghar Karimi, Y. Karimi, Sahand Karimzadhagh, F. Kashoo, Hengameh Kasraei, J. Kauppila, G. Kayode, Sina Kazemian, Shemsu Kedir, T. Keflie, Jaimon T. Kelly, Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot, M. Keykhaei, I. Khaing, H. Khajuria
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Claims (6)
Diets low in nuts, seeds, whole grains, and fruits, and high in salt, are linked to over 4 million deaths from ischemic heart disease each year.
From 1990 to 2023, the number of deaths from heart disease caused by poor diet fell by 43.92% worldwide when adjusted for population age differences.
In 2023, poor dietary patterns were linked to 4.06 million deaths from ischemic heart disease and 96.84 million years of healthy life lost worldwide across 204 countries.
Populations with the lowest consumption of nuts and seeds have the highest number of deaths from ischemic heart disease, at 9.87 per 100,000 people, followed by low whole grain, low fruit, and high sodium intake.
Countries with lower socioeconomic development have a greater share of ischemic heart disease cases caused by poor diet compared to high-income countries.
Low consumption of nuts, seeds, whole grains, and fruits, along with high sodium intake, is associated with a large share of ischemic heart disease cases worldwide.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.