2026 Dietary guidance to improve cardiovascular health: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association

Top Things to Know

The key dietary principles are 1) focus on dietary patterns, 2) consume heart-healthy dietary patterns across the life course, and 3) choose foods consistent with this guidance regardless of where food is procured, prepared or consumed.

Heart-healthy dietary patterns fulfill essential nutrient requirements for most individuals, are rich in fiber, and unlikely to exceed 10% of energy from saturated fat. For most people, dietary cholesterol is no longer a primary target for CVD risk reduction.

Heart-healthy diets are generally consistent with risk reduction dietary patterns recommended for other conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, kidney disease and cognitive health.

Summary of Conclusion/Findings

This statement updates the Association’s dietary guidance last published in 2021 and reflects the most recent scientific evidence and expert consensus. As the key features of this statement remain largely aligned with previous guidance, this update highlights the strong continuity in scientific evidence over time, while also offering more nuanced interpretations on specific topics like dairy, ultraprocessed foods, and alcohol. As part of the development of this paper, a literature review was conducted examining the latest scientific evidence on the association between replacing food sources of saturated fat with food sources of unsaturated fat and cardiovascular disease. Using similar methodology, this review identified new literature published since the Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review (NESR) Systematic Review on ‘Food Sources of Saturated Fat and Cardiovascular disease’ but also considered food sources of unsaturated fatty acids within the search. This statement 1) reinforces the importance of focusing on heart-healthy dietary patterns, rather than on single foods or nutrients; 2) highlights the necessity to adopt heart-healthy eating habits early in life and maintain them across the life course; 3) organizes the guidance into nine features to facilitate adoption of a dietary pattern that support cardiovascular health; and 4) recognizes the additional benefits that come with adoption of a heart-healthy dietary pattern beyond CVD.