Keto, Mediterranean or Vegan: Which Diet Is Best for the Heart?

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▼ CHICAGO — In the room, physicians and nutritionists clung to their idea of an ideal diet like a parent clings to his or her child.
On Nov. 10, here at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions annual meeting, a group of panelists discussed which diets they thought were the best for heart health, pulling on already-published data from recent years. Though there wasn't a clear winner, the panelists agreed that an  ideal dietis one that is high in vegetables, high in non-processed whole foods, and low in processed meat, added sugar and carbohydrates.
Though the best diet "depends on the individual … I also firmly believe that everyone should focus on a foundational diet that includes all of [these] agreed upon components," one of the panelists, Christopher Gardner, director of Nutrition Studies at Stanford Prevention Research Center, told Live Science afterwards.
But even those agreed upon components would be a major dietary change for most Americans — and only once you get down to that "foundational diet" is there "room to 'biohack' your way to your own personalized diet," Gardner said.
What's more, the best diet is also "the one you can stick to," and more specifically, the "highest quality" one you can stick to, he said.
Veggies, meat and lots of olive oil
The panelists discussed three diets — vegan, Mediterranean and keto — and their effects on heart health.
The vegan diet
The vegan diet calls for the elimination of all meat and animal products from the diet, and focuses primarily on veggies.
"If you substitute animal protein with plant protein, you would decrease mortality… [and] cardiovascular risk factors" over a period of time, said Dr. Kim Williams, a cardiologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, during the session. Past studies have shown that the risk decreases the most when you stop eating processed red meat, he added. Compared with a diet high in meat, a plant-based diet also reduces high blood pressure and there's evidence it also decreases levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation in the body, he said.
But even without the vegan diet, "if everybody went from [eating] processed red meat to [eating] just regular red meat, we would dramatically decrease cardiovascular death in this country," Williams said.
Still, the vegan diet isn't perfect. The diet can lead to a vitamin B12deficiency — a vitamin that's found in animal products. Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to reduced red blood cell counts, or anemia. (Another cause of anemia is iron deficiency.) What's more, the vegan diet is not going to work if, along with your veggies, you're also eating plates of fried food, Williams added.
The Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean dietallows for animal protein, but fish is preferred over red meat. Extra-virgin olive oil takes a lead role in this diet, which also includes nuts, lots of vegetables, fruits and wine (in moderation). There's evidence that the Mediterranean diet reduces levels of "bad" cholesterol and is associated with a reduced risk of death from heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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