AHA leans plant protein

The American Heart Association published a scientific statement titled “2026 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health” on March 31, 2026, and the full statement appears in the journal Circulation. (ahajournals.org) The 2026 statement supersedes the AHA’s 2021 guidance and shifts the emphasis from single nutrients to nine food‑based features that define a heart‑healthy dietary pattern. (ahajournals.org) One of those nine features explicitly calls for choosing healthy sources of protein and for replacing sources of saturated fat with unsaturated fats, and the guidance reiterates keeping saturated fat to about less than 10% of daily calories. (ahajournals.org) The AHA framed the update against U.S. diet trends, noting more than half of adults and roughly 60% of children currently consume unhealthy diets that contribute to high blood pressure, obesity and cardiovascular risk. (newsroom.heart.org) The statement lists leading authors and chairs including Alice H. Lichtenstein (chair) and Amit Khera (vice chair) and names Daniel W. Jones and Kristina S. Petersen among the writing group. (ahajournals.org) The AHA also points to recent evidence linking plant‑forward protein patterns to lower blood‑pressure risk: a 2025 study in the Journal of the American Heart Association found each additional 20 grams/day of plant protein was associated with a 16% lower risk of developing hypertension (analysis of 2,294 participants, median follow‑up ~9 years). (heart.org)