Replacing Meat With Nuts, Beans and Whole Grains Linked to Up to 36% Lower Heart Disease Risk

Swapping processed meat for whole grains is linked to a 36% lower risk of heart disease, with nuts at 27% and beans and lentils at 23%, a major review has found.

Researchers at the German Diabetes Center in Düsseldorf pooled 37 publications from 24 cohort studies on what happens when animal foods are replaced with plant foods. The evidence for the heart disease swaps was rated moderate certainty. Replacing red meat with nuts or whole grains, or processed meat with nuts, was also linked to lower type 2 diabetes risk, and swapping red or processed meat, eggs or dairy for nuts, legumes or whole grains to a lower risk of death from any cause. The review is published in BMC Medicine.

These are observational studies. The authors conclude in the paper:

Our findings indicate that a shift from animal-based (e.g., red and processed meat, eggs, dairy, poultry, butter) to plant-based (e.g., nuts, legumes, whole grains, olive oil) foods is beneficially associated with cardiometabolic health and all-cause mortality.

Ham sandwich out, hummus on wholemeal in.

It comes a month after Harvard linked swapping red meat for nuts and beans to 30% lower diabetes risk, and follows a review of 4.4 million people linking red meat to heart disease and diabetes.

Small swaps, big rewards!