The Mediterranean and DASH diets are often cited by cardiologists as two of the easiest, most effective dietary strategies for protecting the heart from cardiovascular disease (CVD).
According to new 30-year data from more than 200,000 patients, however, there is another diet that can help limit CVD: the portfolio diet, which focuses on cholesterol-lowering foods such as plant-based proteins, nuts and viscous fibers. The full analysis was published in Circulation, a journal from the American Heart Association.[1]
What is the portfolio diet?
The portfolio diet earned its name from the fact that it includes a “portfolio” of plant-based proteins such as soy. Viscous fibers, nuts, oats, barley, berries, apples, citrus fruit, avocados and plant-based oils are also included in a portfolio diet. The primary difference between this and other heart-healthy diets is that it is stricter about limiting animal proteins.
Three portfolio diet studies show benefit
The authors of this analysis tracked the eating habits and cardiovascular health of nearly 74,000 women from the Nurses’ Health Study, more than 92,000 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II and nearly 44,000 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. All participants were free of CVD and cancer at the start of the study. “Validated food frequency questionnaires” were filled out at baseline and every four years, and the research team evaluated questionnaire responses to determine which patients were following a portfolio diet.
For the sake of this analysis, CVD was defined as “a composite of incident nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal coronary heart disease and fatal and nonfatal stroke.” Participants were followed for up to 30 years.
Overall, the group determined that closely following a portfolio diet is associated with a 14% lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke than not following a portfolio diet at all.
“Through this research, we found that the portfolio diet score was consistently associated with a lower risk of both heart disease and stroke, highlighting an opportunity for people to lower their heart disease risk through consuming more of these foods recommended in the diet,” Andrea Glenn, PhD, a registered dietitian and postdoctoral fellow with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, said in a statement.
Glenn also emphasized that diets are not necessarily an “all-or-nothing approach.”
“You can take your own diet and make a few small changes and see cardiovascular benefits,” she said. “You also do not have to follow it as a strict vegan or vegetarian diet to see benefits, but the more of the foods (from the portfolio diet) that you eat, the greater your heart disease risk protection, as we saw in the current study. We need to get the word out.”
Click here to read the full study in Circulation.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.