Title:Features of a Balanced Healthy Diet with Cardiovascular and Other
Benefits
Volume: 21
Issue: 3
Author(s): Antonis A. Manolis, Theodora A. Manolis, Helen Melita and Antonis S. Manolis*
Affiliation:
- First Department of Cardiology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
Athens, Greece
Keywords:
Healthy diet, cardiovascular disease, mediterranean diet, vegetarian diet, vegan diet, DASH diet, plant food, animal food.
Abstract:
Background: Cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death globally.
Besides lack of exercise, obesity, smoking, and other risk factors, poor nutrition and unhealthy/
unbalanced diets play an important role in CVD.
Objective: This review examined data on all issues of the CV-health benefits of a balanced diet, with
tabulation of nutritional data and health-authority recommendations and pictorial illustration of the main
features of a CV-healthy diet.
Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for relevant studies and reviews on diet and CV
health.
Results: For a long time, there has been evidence, corroborated by recent findings, that pro-vegetarian
diets have a beneficial influence on serum lipid levels, markers of inflammation and endothelial function,
prooxidant-antioxidant balance, and gut microbiome, all probably contributing to reduced CV risk.
Worries about the nutritional adequacy of vegetarian diets are circumvented by obtaining certain nutrients
lacking or found in lower amounts in plants than in animal foods, by consuming a wide variety of
healthy plant foods and through intake of oral supplements or fortified foods. Well-balanced diets, such
as the Mediterranean or the Dietary-Approaches-to-Stop-Hypertension diets, provide CV-health benefits.
Nevertheless, a broad variety of plant-based diets with low/minimal animal food intake may allow
for a personalized and culturally adjusted application of dietary recommendations contributing to the
maintenance of CV health.
Conclusion: Universal adoption of a balanced CV-healthy diet can reduce global, CV and other mortality
by ~20%. This requires world-wide programs of information for and education of the public, starting
with school children and expanding to all groups, sectors, and levels.