Cardiovascular health
The overall working of the heart and blood vessels, where disease risk is shaped by blood pressure, blood fats, inflammation and well-identified dietary factors.
Cardiovascular health covers the working of the heart, arteries and veins. The diseases that affect it (heart attack, stroke, heart failure) remain the leading cause of death worldwide, and diet is among the best-documented levers for prevention.
Four markers structure risk assessment: blood pressure, the lipid profile (LDL, HDL, triglycerides), blood glucose and waist circumference. They are not independent: together they define metabolic syndrome, where the risk exceeds the sum of its parts.
Dietary cholesterol is no longer the designated culprit. Understanding has moved on: in most people, the cholesterol you eat has little effect on blood cholesterol, because the liver adjusts its own production. What matters more is the quality of the fats, replacing saturated and trans fatty acids with unsaturated ones, along with soluble fibre intake and cutting down on salt.
Low-grade inflammation is the third axis, long underestimated. A diet rich in plants, omega-3s and polyphenols acts on this inflammatory background, which partly explains the results of Mediterranean-style diets in intervention studies.