Research

Mixed

Adopting a diet with higher pro-inflammatory potential, as measured by the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), is directly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular death.

To lower your risk of heart attack or stroke, prioritize a diet that minimizes inflammation. This means eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and olive oil (characteristic of a Mediterranean diet) while limiting processed meats, refined grains, and sugary beverages. You do not need to track a specific index; adopting these anti-inflammatory food patterns is the actionable step.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Our results provide direct prospective evidence that a pro-inflammatory diet is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular clinical events.
Ana García‐Arellano et al. · Nutrients · 2015

Why this rating

Large prospective cohort (PREDIMED, n=7216), multivariable adjusted, dose-response relationship, but observational design limits causal inference compared to RCTs of specific diets.

Source

Dietary Inflammatory Index and Incidence of Cardiovascular Disease in the PREDIMED Study

Ana García‐Arellano et al. · Nutrients · 2015

DOI 10.3390/nu7064124

rct · n=7216Cited 248×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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