Nearly every family has been touched by heart disease in one way or another. For survivors, a medical trauma can be a wakeup call to reevaluate life priorities – stress, time with family, faith, forgiveness, and the little things that give life meaning. It can also be a wakeup call to revisit lifestyle and health habits, such as diet, exercise, and tobacco use.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S. But it doesn’t have to be. The World Heart Federation estimates that 80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable through measures like diet and lifestyle.

Heart disease is most often caused by atherosclerosis, a condition in which artery walls are so hardened and restricted by plaque buildup that blood has trouble flowing to the heart. Plaque buildup in the arteries is mostly made up of excess fat and cholesterol, but other lifestyle choices (such as not enough moderate-to-vigorous exercise or using tobacco) can also cause atherosclerosis. As such, diet plays an important role.

To help people take action, the American Heart Association published their 2026 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health. These guidelines closely follow mainstream recommendations for nutrition, emphasizing plant-based foods and limiting saturated fat, salt, and added sugars. Not surprisingly, “choosing foods made mostly with whole grains rather than refined grains” is one of the nine key points.

The guidance then lays out the scientific support for whole grains’ importance. In their words, “a substantial body of observational evidence from large cohort studies demonstrates that regular consumption of whole-grain foods compared with infrequent intake is associated with lower risks of CVD, coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome and more favorable cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure, blood lipids, and glycemic control.”

But it’s not just observational research in which whole grains show promise. Randomized controlled trials, the “gold standard” of research, “have demonstrated that replacing refined grains with whole grains leads to improvements in cardiovascular risk factors,” the report confirms.

Specifically, people who eat more whole grains tend to have better blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, and healthier weights – all things that can impact the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. Some whole grains, such as barley and oats, even have a special type of fiber (soluble beta-glucan fiber), that can bind with cholesterol and help it exit the body, thereby reducing heart disease risk.

While no single food can check all of your nutritional boxes, research helps us assign value to the amount of risk a particular food group (or lack thereof) in the diet may have on various diseases. In a new study analyzing data from 204 countries worldwide, researchers found that poor nutrition was linked with 4 million ischemic heart disease deaths in 2023 alone. When digging into specific dietary factors, low intake whole grains was the second-leading dietary factor for ischemic heart disease deaths, coming in just behind low intake of nuts and seeds. Similar research looking at low- and middle-income countries found that the largest behavioral risk factor for ischemic heart disease in those regions was a diet low in whole grains.

The good news is that dietary change doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. Research shows that small changes over time can add up to make a big impact. Take a look at your day and see where there are opportunities to make the switch to whole grains. Before you know it, you’ll have a new habit in your routine, and a happy heart to go with it. (Kelly)