New Heart Health Guidelines Advise Shifting to Plant-Based Diets and Away from Meat

(SeaPRwire) –   On March 31, the American Heart Association (AHA) unveiled its updated guidelines for maintaining a heart-healthy diet. The organization revises its recommendations every five years to incorporate the most recent research findings on how diet and nutrition impact cardiovascular health. While much of the advice will be recognizable, certain parts of it contradict the newly updated federal dietary guidelines.

The AHA still supports increasing intake of fruits and vegetables, moderating alcohol consumption, cutting back on salt and sugar, and reducing (or preferably eliminating) ultra-processed foods. However, its newest guidelines take a firmer stance by advising a move away from meat—going further than previous recommendations, which only suggested swapping red meat for leaner options like chicken or fish. Additionally, the guidelines propose replacing saturated fats from animal products with those from nuts, seeds, and non-tropical plants.

“We purposefully use the term ‘shift’ when referring to moving toward more plant-based protein sources because we understand that, in general, these sources are healthier,” explains Dr. Amit Khera, a professor of medicine and director of preventive cardiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, who also serves as vice chair of the committee that developed the report.

This advice conflicts with the federal dietary guidelines, which highlight the advantages of red meat and “prioritize” increasing protein intake—including from animal sources. Although the federal guidelines recommend keeping saturated fat consumption to 10% of daily calories (a long-held standard that the AHA’s new guidelines also support), U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated, “we are ending the war on saturated fats” when unveiling the federal guidelines. There is some overlap, though: The federal guidelines stress the importance of healthy fats from “whole food sources,” and while they include meat, they also back the consumption of fish, nuts, seeds, and avocados.

Alison Steiber, chief mission impact and strategy officer at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, notes that one reason for the divergent approaches is that the two sets of guidelines target different audiences. The AHA’s guidelines are more stringent on specific nutrients like fat and sodium—both key contributors to high blood pressure—because their focus is on reducing heart disease risk. (High blood pressure is a known risk factor for cardiovascular problems.) However, since the federal guidelines aim to lower chronic disease risk in the general population (including heart disease), the two are largely in agreement, with differences only in how strongly they advocate for changes related to risk factors specific to heart disease, she explains.

Khera states that the goal of the AHA’s latest guidelines is to help people maintain healthier hearts across their entire lives; the guidelines are designed for families to follow, including with young children. “Heart disease starts in childhood, so we need to begin healthy eating habits early,” he says. “Around 60% of children don’t have healthy diets, and one out of every five U.S. children is obese. These guidelines are for everyone from age one upwards, covering the whole lifespan—not just for older individuals.”