How Switching to a Plant-Based Diet Can Prevent Heart Disease

Your heart beats an average of 100,000 times a day, pumping 2,000 gallons of blood through the body to deliver vital nutrients, fuel, and oxygen to your cells. Keeping a healthy heart and lowering your risk of heart disease is the main goal of a healthy diet and exercise, and the Cleveland Clinic wants Americans to start thinking about their heart health long before any symptoms arise. Congestive heart failure may be far off, but it doesn't happen overnight. A lifetime of healthy eating and exercise is the way to have your healthiest heart, now and later.

In a country where heart disease is the leading cause of death, according to the CDC, killing more than 650,000 Americans every year, and where 48 percent of Americans have some form of heart disease, which includes strokes, high blood pressure, and heart attacks as well as congestive heart failure, doctors warn that many people have early markers for heart disease and not know it. Through lifestyle choices such as a plant-based diet, it is possible to prevent and reverse heart disease, studies have found.

Some of those risk factors for heart disease include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high blood lipid counts, which can also lead to blocked arteries  It should come as no surprise, then, that we need to keep our hearts as healthy as possible – starting as early as possible –– in order to avoid ever experiencing a life-threatening heart attack, stroke, or congestive heart failure.

Since one major contributor to heart disease is the lifelong habit of eating foods high in animal fat, which raises your cholesterol and can lead to plaque and harmful blockages of the arteries, taking the leap into plant-based eating (or eating a mostly plant-based diet) is a good start to ensuring that yours will be a healthy heart now, and for many decades to come.

In an important research study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the review of data showed that plant-based diets are associated with a lower risk of not only heart disease but "all causes of mortality" in the general population of middle-aged adults. Here's what you need to know about switching to a plant-based diet to lower and reverse your risk of heart disease.

Your risk of heart disease increases with age, but it’s not exclusive to older adults. The CDC states that heart disease is showing up more and more in younger people, ages 35 to 64, due to the high rates of obesity and high blood pressure in America. These precursors to heart disease are tied to the Standard American Diet, high in meat, dairy, added sugar, and processed foods that contain extra oil, sodium, and chemicals that make junk food addictive.

Over 35 million U.S. adults still smoking, this habit can damage blood vessels and make them weaker, more prone to damage, especially when combined with a high-fat diet of animal fat, or saturated fat. (As for e-cigarettes and vape pens, these have not been proven to be any safer for your long-term heart health).

If anyone in your immediate family (parents, grandparents) has suffered from high cholesterol, arterial blockages, high blood pressure, stroke, or heart attack, those genes often get passed down to you. Your genes for heart disease can get "switched on" or remain off depending on your daily lifestyle choices, according to doctors and experts. According to the  CDC:

Lifestyle choices that lead to an increased risk of heart disease include:

America's obesity rate has risen to about 40 percent for the first time in our history and is now at an astonishing 42.4 percent. The national adult obesity rate has increased by 26 percent since 2008, and with it, there has been a parallel increase in the number of adults experiencing high cholesterol levels, chronic hypertension, and prediabetes, which affects over 108 million Americans, or one in every three adults.

A diet high in animal fat, processed food, and added sugar is the number one culprit when it comes to your risk factors for heart disease. Certain macro and micronutrients –– or lack of them –– in the Standard American Diet are associated with an increased risk of heart disease in your lifetime.

Foods that are linked to heart disease include:

It’s never too late – or too early – to start taking care of your heart! While you can’t change your genetics, you can focus on the behavioral factors you do have control over, including what you eat and your daily activity levels. A plant-based diet has been scientifically proven to be one of the best ways to reverse and prevent heart disease, as well as lower your lifetime heart disease risk.

One 2019 study published in Nutrients examined the effects of a whole-food plant-based diet on cardiovascular risk factors in 151 adults.

Following this whole food plant-based diet for short, medium and long-term periods were all associated with beneficial cardiovascular health results. All participants saw improvements in blood lipid and blood pressure values. The female participants that were in the program long-term saw a bigger drop in LDL cholesterol levels (the “bad” kind) compared to the groups following the diet for a shorter period of time.

Fully changing your diet to avoid animal products, dairy, and processed foods all at once can be challenging, so it’s important to stay optimistic and strategic, and know that even an incremental change is better than nothing. So don't be too hard on yourself if this is difficult.

A 2016 article published in The Permanente Journal recommends taking the following steps so you can successfully transition into a plant-based diet:

You can see significant decreases in your LDL  or so-called “bad” cholesterol after just 3 to 6 weeks of eating a whole-food plant-based diet, according to Dr. Joel Kahn, Clinical Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine and bestselling author of The Plant-Based Solution. Kahn is a plant-based cardiologist who recommends to his heart patients that they consider adopting this way of eating to be heart healthier. However, there are a number of factors that may impact individual results, Kahn adds.

According to the American Heart Association, there are two sources of cholesterol in our bodies:

Our liver makes all of the cholesterol we need to be healthy. Add in foods that are high in saturated fat and trans fat, and it can cause our liver to make more cholesterol than normal, which drives up LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, the American Heart Association warns.

Fortunately, switching to a vegan or plant-based diet can cause your cholesterol levels to start dropping within a week. The Game Changers documentary showed that for active or athletic people this drop in cholesterol happens quickly. Active firefighters who switched to eating plant-based saw a drop in cholesterol after only one week. If you continue, you can lower your cholesterol by as much as 35 percent in three weeks, but individual results will vary.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, eating the following foods can see a drop in LDL cholesterol by almost 30 percent in just four weeks:

While all whole (unprocessed) plant-based foods are nutritionally beneficial, there are certain ones that will really get your heart pumping –– in a good way!

If you already eat a mostly Mediterranean diet, full of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts, and seeds but including meat, fish, and dairy then one way to make it even heart healthier is to replace animal products with plant-based proteins, according to a recent study. This "greener" Mediterranean diet has been shown to be an even healthier way to eat for optimal heart health.

Heart disease is the number one killer in America, and yet many of us don't know we have it until it's too late. Rather than wait to be told you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure, eat a heart-healthy diet of plant-based foods and avoid red meat, dairy, and processed foods with added sugar and sodium. Here's what the research says is the healthiest way to eat.

For more expert advice, visit The Beet's Health & Nutrition articles.