Overview
- The American Heart Association, which published its update Tuesday, prioritizes plant-based proteins over meat and caps saturated fat at 10% of daily calories.
- The guidance urges using nontropical plant oils such as olive, canola, and soybean instead of animal fats like beef tallow and tropical oils like coconut and palm.
- It advises choosing low-fat or fat-free dairy and limiting added sugar, salt, ultra-processed foods, and alcohol, with a shift toward drinking less or not at all.
- The recommendations apply from age one to help establish eating patterns that lower lifetime cardiovascular risk.
- The stance breaks from January’s federal guidelines that elevate animal protein and full-fat dairy, and scrutiny has grown after a supplemental report flagged financial ties between some federal advisers and meat and dairy groups.