The 4 Best Diets for Heart Health

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide (1Trusted Source).
In addition to lifestyle factors like engaging in regular exercise and not smoking, diet is one of the best ways to protect your heart. That’s because inflammation, blood pressure, cholesterol, and other heart disease risk factors are affected by what you eat (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source).

In particular, diets high in fiber, healthy fats, and antioxidants have been shown to help support heart health — whereas high intakes of added sugar and processed meats are associated with an increased risk of heart disease (5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source).
While many diets claim to support heart health, it’s important to choose one that’s backed by scientific evidence and easy to maintain long term.
Here are the 6 best diets for heart health.

۱. The Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional eating patterns of people living in Greece and Southern Italy during the 1960s (7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source).
In general, the diet emphasizes whole, minimally processed foods, including whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, and extra virgin olive oil. It also includes moderate amounts of poultry, eggs, low fat dairy (9Trusted Source).
Additionally, it limits or eliminates added sugars, refined carbs, highly processed snacks, and red and processed meats.
Numerous studies associate the Mediterranean diet with a reduced risk of heart disease, as well as heart disease risk factors like high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure (8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source, 10Trusted Source, 11Trusted Source, 12Trusted Source, 13Trusted Source).

۲. The DASH Diet
DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and was designed to help prevent and treat hypertension, or high blood pressure. In turn, it reduces your risk of heart disease (18Trusted Source).
Like the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet doesn’t mandate a strict food list.
Instead, it recommends specific amounts of food groups based on your calorie needs, focusing on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy, and lean meats while limiting red meat, refined grains, and added sugars (6Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source).

۳. Vegan and vegetarian diets
Vegan and vegetarian diets are eating patterns that eliminate all meat, including poultry, red meat, and fish.
Instead, these diets emphasize fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, soy products, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and plant-based oils and fats.

۴. The Flexitarian Diet
Created by dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, the Flexitarian Diet is an eating pattern that focuses on plant foods but allows moderate amounts of meat, fish, dairy, and other animal products. It encourages you to get most of your protein from plant foods.
There’s no set rule on how much or how often you should eat animal products, so it depends on your preferences.
You’re encouraged to eat mostly whole, minimally processed foods and limit or avoid added sugars, refined grains, processed meats, and other highly processed foods.