February is Heart Health Month, and heart health is something we’re very passionate about here at 80/20 Plants.
Our goal is to combat conditions like heart disease by encouraging people to eat plant-based diets because we know how impactful our diets are on our overall health.
Heart Disease in the U.S.
According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States.
Even more sobering are these statistics:
- One person in the U.S. dies every 36 seconds from heart disease.
- 1 in 4 (about 655,000) Americans die from heart disease each year.
- The cost resulting from heart disease in the U.S. is about $219 billion every year.
- About 805,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year.
Preventing Heart Disease
I know those numbers can be scary, but there’s good news here too: Your lifestyle choices significantly affect how likely you are to develop some form of heart disease. Eating healthy, exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, and choosing not to smoke are all ways to prevent heart disease.
And if you’re pursuing a plant-based diet, you are already setting yourself up to maintain a healthy heart.
Studies have shown that a plant-based diet, as part of a healthy overall lifestyle, can prevent, delay, and even reverse heart disease.
That’s because meat products come with high levels of cholesterol, and saturated fat, and can result in poor heart health. And when you eliminate these foods from your diet and replace them with whole plant foods, you can see significant improvements to your health.
And your diet doesn’t even have to be 100% plant-based for you to receive these benefits. Generally, if you consume more plant foods and fewer animal foods, you have a lower chance of disease or death caused by a heart-related condition.
The quality of your plant-based diet
According to Mayo Clinic, one study found that people who ate more vegetables lessened their risk of chronic heart disease, and the more vegetables they ate, the lower the risk.
That’s why we’re focused on a plant-based diet here, rather than just a vegan diet. Because you can eat a diet free of animal products that still isn’t healthy for you (yes, those Oreos are vegan, but they aren’t plant-based).
The quality of the foods you’re eating affects your heart as well. If you eat mostly processed plant foods, you aren’t doing your body (or, specifically, your heart) any favors. But if you eat mostly whole plant foods, you’ll get all of those nutrients you need to have a healthy, thriving heart.
That’s why we focus on just 80% of your diet. Because if you can get to a point where 80% of what you’re consuming consists of whole plant foods, you’ll have wiggle room in that other 20% for some indulgence.
DISCLAIMER: This content is provided for informational purposes only. By providing this information, we are not diagnosing any medical disease or condition. This information should not be used as a substitute for the medical advice of a physician.
