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by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

There have been many studies of vegetarian diets and the risk of having cardiovascular disease and of dying from cardiovascular disease. The term cardiovascular disease refers to conditions that affect the heart or blood vessels. These conditions can lead to events like heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure. For the past couple of years, I’ve worked with a group of investigators to systematically examine and compare relevant research on vegetarian (including vegan) diets and cardiovascular disease (1).

We did something called an umbrella review which provides an overall assessment of the information available on a specific topic. An umbrella review is an evaluation of systematic reviews.  A systematic review summarizes the results of studies that have been done on a specific topic. There have been a number of systematic reviews on vegetarian diets and different aspects of cardiovascular disease. We critically examined systematic reviews that focused on the topic of vegetarian diets and cardiovascular disease. We evaluated systematic reviews that had been published since 2018.

Consistent with findings from other studies, we found that people eating vegetarian diets had a lower risk of having cardiovascular disease and of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to people not eating vegetarian diets. When we looked specifically at systematic reviews that included vegans, we found that vegans had lower blood pressure, lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and lower total cholesterol, lower triglycerides, and lower C-reactive protein (an indicator of inflammation). These studies were all studies of free-living vegetarians and vegans – people who had chosen to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet.

We also looked at studies where adults who were at risk for cardiovascular disease were assigned to either a vegan diet or a nonvegetarian diet. We found that, in these studies, there was a greater reduction in  total and LDL cholesterol, and fasting glucose (blood sugar) in people following a vegan diet than was seen in the comparison group of people who were following a nonvegetarian diet.

Based on the results of our work, we concluded that clinicians (medical doctors and dietitians, for example) may consider recommending vegetarian/vegan diets to reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease and to reduce the risk of having or dying from cardiovascular disease.

Reference:

1. Landry, MJ, Senkus KE, Mangels AR, et al. Vegetarian dietary patterns and cardiovascular risk factors and disease prevention: An umbrella review of systematic reviews. Am J Prev Cardiol. 2024;20:100868. You can read the article here.

To read more about cardiovascular disease and vegan/vegetarian diets see:

Heart Healthy Diets: The Vegetarian Way

Vegetarian Diet Reduces Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Healthier Vegetarian Diets Are Associated with a Reduced Risk of Major Cardiovascular Events

Vegan Diet Improves Cardiovascular Health: Results of a Twins Study