Research
Macro partitioning
Higher total protein intake (up to ~116g/day) is not significantly associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), or stroke in middle-aged adults.
If you are a middle-aged adult concerned about heart disease, simply eating more protein than you currently do is unlikely to lower your risk of heart attack or stroke. Focus on overall dietary patterns and established risk factors rather than just maximizing protein grams.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
In multivariable models adjusting for energy intake, sociodemographic, lifestyle, and comorbidity factors, we found no statistically significant association between total protein intake and CVD risk... Overall, consistent findings were observed for CHD or stroke as outcomes.
Why this rating
Large prospective cohort (n=5879), long follow-up (median 17.5 years), rigorous adjustment for confounders.
Source
Protein Consumption and Risk of CVD Among U.S. Adults: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)
Ji Yun Tark et al. · Nutrients · 2024
DOI 10.3390/nu16213773
cohort · n=5879Cited 3×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Higher diversity of protein sources (specifically 'count' of sources) is weakly associated with a marginally higher risk of CVD, while 'dissimilarity' of sources shows no association.Good
- Higher percentage of energy from plant protein is associated with a lower risk of stroke, but not overall CVD or CHD.Good
Related findings · Macro partitioning
- Total daily protein intake of 1.6 g/kg/day is sufficient for maximizing resistance training-induced muscle gains, with an upper confidence interval of 2.2 g/kg/day.Strong
- Resistance exercise training combined with sufficient dietary protein intake acts synergistically to maximize skeletal muscle hypertrophy, with protein intake saturating around 1.6 g/kg/day for general populations and potentially requiring 2.0-2.2 g/kg/day for resistance-trained individuals.Strong
- Trans fats should be completely eliminated from the diet, as they increase LDL cholesterol, decrease HDL cholesterol, and are directly associated with increased coronary risk.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →