A sweeping new study is turning the plant-based industry on its head after researchers found that people who follow ultra-processed vegan or plant-focused diets may face dramatically higher risks of heart disease.

For years, plant-based diets have been promoted as inherently healthier.

This message has been pushed heavily by governments, major food companies, and environmental activists.

However, researchers say the picture changes entirely once these diets rely on the highly processed packaged foods that now dominate supermarket “plant-based” shelves.

The study, published in The Lancet, followed more than 63,800 adults in France and found that the heart-health benefits associated with plant-based eating only occur when people consume whole, minimally processed foods, not fake meats, packaged salads drenched in additives, or ultra-processed “healthy” convenience meals.

Lead author Clémentine Prioux of Sorbonne University said:

“Our findings reinforce the necessity of advocating not only for a reduction in animal products but also encouraging the consumption of minimally processed plant–based foods to improve cardiovascular health.”

Instead, researchers found the opposite happening.

Heart-Disease Risk Surges 46%

Over an average follow-up of nine years, people sticking to whole-food plant-based diets were 44% less likely to develop coronary heart disease.

But those eating diets dominated by ultra-processed plant-based products saw:

• a 46% higher risk of coronary heart disease
• a 38% higher risk of cardiovascular disease overall

These individuals were more likely to consume items heavily marketed as “healthy,” such as grocery store breads, boxed pasta dishes, packaged soups, and ready-made salads full of emulsifiers, stabilizers, and industrial seed oils.

The findings align with growing research showing that people who adopt plant-based diets often replace meat with highly engineered substitutes, many of which are more processed than the foods they’re meant to replace.

Importantly, the study found that people who ate some animal products but avoided ultra-processed foods had no higher heart-disease risk than those on clean, whole-food plant-based diets.

In other words, food quality mattered more than whether the diet was plant-based or animal-based.

One of the Largest Studies of Its Kind

The massive dataset came from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort, which tracks diet, health, and lifestyle factors over time.

Participants recorded every food and drink they consumed using repeated 24-hour food-tracking logs.

The researchers cross-referenced diet reports with blood and urine biomarkers and categorized each food using the well-established NOVA processing scale.

NOVA separates foods into three key groups:

• Unprocessed or minimally processed: fruits, vegetables, grains, fresh meats, fish
• Processed: cheese, canned vegetables, freshly baked bread
• Ultra-processed: industrial formulations with additives, emulsifiers, flavorings, preservatives

Ultra-processed foods are typically high in sugar, salt, seed oils, and calories, while being stripped of fiber and micronutrients.

According to the study, ultra-processed plant-based diets delivered the worst outcomes of all, nearly a 40% rise in heart-disease risk.

A Serious Warning for the West

The researchers noted the findings may be especially relevant to Western nations, where the market is saturated with processed plant-based products.

Previous studies show Americans consume roughly twice as many ultra-processed plant-based foods as people in several European countries.

At the same time, data shows heart attacks are rising in younger adults, with the sharpest increase, 95%, among those aged 25 to 29.

Experts say poor diet, obesity, and heavy intake of processed foods are key contributors.

While the study highlighted that ultra-processed animal-based foods carry an even higher risk, the bottom line is clear that once a diet becomes ultra-processed, the “plant-based” label does not make it healthy.

Researchers concluded:

“Taken together, these results highlight the importance of considering three dimensions of diet for cardiovascular prevention – the balance between plant– and animal–based foods, nutritional quality and degree of processing.”

The findings add to mounting evidence that the modern food system, not meat, not dairy, not plants, is the main driver of today’s food-related cardiovascular epidemic.

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Our thanks for Dr. William Makis for bringing this article to our attention.