Consuming fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, fish and whole-fat dairy products is key to lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes. The study also found that a healthy diet can be achieved in various ways, such as including moderate amounts of whole grains or unprocessed meats.
The World Health Organization estimates ~18 million people died from cardiovascular disease in 2019, representing 32% of all global deaths. Of these deaths, 85% were due to heart attacks and strokes. Population Research Health Institute researchers and their global collaborators analyzed data from 245,000 people in 80 countries from multiple studies.
Turns out that saturated fat isn’t the big awful thing that has been peddled for decades. What turns out to be better for you is shorter chain saturated fats produced by a health gut microbiome, and that feeding your microbiome is essential to better health. Also, not all calories are equal. It turns out items higher in resistant starch feeds a healthy microbiome and in turn those bacteria convert the food calories into short chain saturated fats which feed you. See this recent Nature Comm paper.