Diet, Nutrition, and Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels and are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in adults in the United States and many other developed countries. Although some CVD risk factors such as genetics and age are not within an individual's control, many are related to lifestyle. Most of the modifiable risk factors for CVD are influenced by diet (the exceptions being tobacco use, physical activity, stress, and psychosocial factors). Diet-related risk factors include obesity and increased waist circumference, hypertension, dyslipidemias, and blood glucose regulation. All of these are responsive to some extent to ingestion of total energy and/or macronutrients and micronutrients, as well as other dietary factors. Ample evidence supports the fact that other emerging risk factors such as ...