2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health

Published: November 02, 2021

Healthy food clean eating selection: fish, fruit, vegetable, cereal, leaf vegetable on background.
  • The statement documents aspects of diet that improve cardiovascular health and reduce cardiovascular risk and focuses on dietary patterns and food-based guidance to promote cardiometabolic health.
  • The statement, (i) emphasizes the importance of dietary patterns beyond individual foods or nutrients; (ii) underscores the critical role of initiating heart-healthy dietary habits early in life; (iii) presents common features of dietary patterns that promote cardiometabolic health, and (iv) discusses additional benefits of heart-healthy dietary patterns, beyond cardiovascular health.
  • Challenges to adopting and adhering to such dietary patterns, include structural racism, neighborhood segregation, food insecurity, and targeted marketing of unhealthy foods are highlighted, thus framing a public health imperative.