What you eat matters for your heart and lifespan
Dietary Macronutrient Intake and Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Mortality: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Eating more plants and healthy fats helps you live longer and have fewer heart problems. Eating too many carbs might hurt your heart, but not your overall chance of dying. Eating too much saturated fat might raise cancer risk, but not heart disease risk.
Surprising Findings
Saturated fat is linked to higher cancer mortality—but not heart disease or overall death.
For decades, saturated fat has been vilified as the #1 cause of heart disease. This study of over 5 million people found zero link to heart disease—only cancer.
Practical Takeaways
Replace one daily carb source (white bread, pasta, sugary cereal) with a source of healthy fat (olive oil, avocado, nuts) or plant protein (lentils, tofu).
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Eating more plants and healthy fats helps you live longer and have fewer heart problems. Eating too many carbs might hurt your heart, but not your overall chance of dying. Eating too much saturated fat might raise cancer risk, but not heart disease risk.
Surprising Findings
Saturated fat is linked to higher cancer mortality—but not heart disease or overall death.
For decades, saturated fat has been vilified as the #1 cause of heart disease. This study of over 5 million people found zero link to heart disease—only cancer.
Practical Takeaways
Replace one daily carb source (white bread, pasta, sugary cereal) with a source of healthy fat (olive oil, avocado, nuts) or plant protein (lentils, tofu).
Publication
Journal
Nutrients
Year
2024
Authors
Yibin Ma, Zekun Zheng, Litao Zhuang, Huiting Wang, Anni Li, Liangkai Chen, Liegang Liu
Related Content
Claims (5)
Eating more of certain healthy fats, like those found in fish and nuts, might help people live longer and have fewer heart problems, because these fats can calm down body inflammation and make blood vessels work better.
Eating more foods like olive oil and nuts — which have healthy fats called MUFAs — might help people live longer and reduce their chance of dying from heart disease.
Eating more saturated fats might raise your risk of dying from cancer by 10%, but it doesn’t seem to affect your risk of dying from heart disease or any other cause—so maybe it harms you in a different way, not by hurting your heart.
Eating more carbs might raise your chance of having a heart problem, but it doesn’t seem to make you more likely to die from anything else or from cancer — so carbs could be hurting your heart on their own.
Eating a little less fat might lower your risk of heart disease by about 7%, but eating a little less carbs might raise your risk by 5%, no matter what kind of food you're eating.