SEA/SEMERGEN consensus document 2019: Dietary recommendations in the prevention of cardiovascular disease

The current paradigm in the nutrition sciences states that the basic nutritional unit is not the nutrients, but the foods that contain them (oils, nuts, dairy products, eggs, red or processed meats, etc.). These act as a food matrix in which the different nutrients synergistically or antagonistically modulate their effects on the various metabolic pathways determining health and disease. Food is not based on nutrients or isolated foods but on complex mixtures of one and the other that are part of a specific food pattern, a concept that has been targeted as the most pertinent to evaluate the associations between nutrition and health or disease. This document presents a summary of the available evidence on the relationship between different foods and cardiovascular health, and offers simple recommendations to be implemented in the dietary advice offered by the health professional.