Plant-based diets are recommended to reduce the risk of heart disease; however, some plant-based diets are associated with a higher risk of heart disease, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The key is what kind of plant based diet is used. The word plant-based has no quality control and many food manufacturers are labeling their products vegan, vegetarian, plant-based although they are not a healthy type of food.
In the study three types of plant based diets were studied, one focused on the idea of plant based in general with no specific guidelines, the second was specific in terms of emphasizing healthful plant-based foods, and the third emphasized the consumption of processed grains and other processed plant-based foods. A higher intake of a more healthful plant-based diet was associated with a substantially lower risk of heart disease. However, a plant-based diet that emphasized less healthy plant foods had the opposite effect.
This is why it is so essential to focus on a combination of foods known to be optimal for health, such as is done in the E4 Diabetes Solutions programs. The E4 Diet is optimized for both reducing diabetes and heart risk and has a classification range of 10 categories of foods, from the ones to most avoid to the ones to most consume.