The Portfolio Diet Is a Win for the Heart

Data supports the use of the Portfolio Diet for heart health. Dreamstime/TNS

When you hear “heart-healthy diet,” you probably think of the Mediterranean or the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diets or perhaps even the Blue Zone way of eating. To some degree, what all these diets have in common is an emphasis on eating a whole-food, plant-based diet.

However, there is one other heart health focused diet that often gets overlooked. The Portfolio Diet might not be as buzzworthy as more celebrated diets, but this eating plan can also bolster cardiovascular health by encouraging us to eat more specific plant-based foods.

Here’s what you need to know about the Portfolio Diet, including how you can make its principles part of your ticker-friendly eating plan.

What is the Portfolio Diet?

“The portfolio diet is a dietary pattern of plant-based foods that have health claims to lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and reduce coronary heart disease risk,” says Dr. Andrea Glenn, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Registered Dietitian at the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She adds that the diet is also low in saturated fat. It takes a few key dietary patterns shown to reduce cholesterol and puts them together.

First developed in the early 2000s, this diet consists of different portfolios, and people can choose to consume one or more of the portfolios for cholesterol-lowering effects. The portfolios you can “invest” in include:

• Plant-based proteins, such as tofu, beans, and lentils (50 grams (g) daily)
• Foods/Supplements with viscous fiber, such as oats, barley, psyllium, okra, apples, and berries (20 g of this fiber daily)
• Nuts and seeds—sources of phytosterols and healthy fats (45 g daily)
• Plant sterols from foods (flax, soybeans), fortified foods and/or supplements (2 g sterols daily)
• Monounsaturated fat, including olive oil and avocado (45 g daily)

“Viscous fiber may reduce LDL-C levels by affecting cholesterol synthesis, plant sterols can inhibit the absorption of cholesterol in the small intestine, thereby reducing levels, certain amino acids common in plant proteins may decrease cholesterol levels, and monounsaturated fat has been shown to inhibit LDL oxidation and reduce inflammatory markers,” explains Glenn. All of this can have a positive impact on long-term heart health.

Compared to the Mediterranean Diet, the Portfolio Diet places more emphasis on soy products, foods with viscous fiber, and is a bit more plant-based.

“The more portfolio foods you include in your diet, the greater reductions in LDL-C you may experience,” Glenn says. According to the diet founders, each of the portfolios lowers cholesterol by five to 10 percent. If your diet includes foods from all the portfolios, cholesterol may drop by up to 30 percent. So there is a cumulative effect.

“All of the foods in the portfolios are plants, so the concept of the diet is very plant-forward,” notes Glenn. But she says this diet does not have any foods that are off-limits. You are still permitted to eat meat and dairy, but the guidance is to make appropriate dietary substitutions more often, like using olive oil instead of butter, barley instead of white rice, and swapping red meat for tofu. Foods higher in saturated fat, refined carbs, or added sugars are de-emphasized.

Science and the Portfolio Diet

Good news for those who enjoy eating plants: There is robust research to back up the health claims of the diet, and not just for heart disease reduction.

The diet plan has been shown to result in clinically meaningful improvements in LDL cholesterol, perhaps to the same degree as statins, as well as other cardiometabolic risk factors, including apolipoprotein B and triglyceride levels.

A 2023 investigation published in Circulation looked at the diet data of 166,270 women and 43,970 men who did not have cardiovascular disease when they enrolled in the study. After up to 30 years of follow-up, those with the highest Portfolio Diet score had a 14 percent lower risk of heart disease and stroke compared to those with the lowest score, and also tested for more favorable blood lipid and inflammatory profiles. As reported in the journal Diabetes Care, among 145,299 postmenopausal women, those who most adhered to the Portfolio Diet (greater intake levels of plant-protein, nuts, sterols, and viscous fiber) had a lower risk for developing type 2 diabetes over a mean follow-up of 16.0 years.

How to Follow the Portfolio Diet

“The best way to get started on the Portfolio Diet is to take what you are already eating and make some swaps with recommended foods,” Glenn says. “You can pick what will be easiest for you to allow yourself time to adapt and you can do this slowly over time to help form good habits.” Once you feel comfortable with new foods, Glenn says you can try adding another one that fits into any of the portfolios.

You’ll have to do a bit of research to figure out all your food and supplement options that fit into each of the portfolios. But there is some overlap with existing “healthy-habit” diets such as the Mediterranean and DASH.

“The diet is very high in fiber, which may cause some gastrointestinal upset; therefore, it is important to start adding the foods to your diet slowly to allow your body time to adjust and speak to a healthcare provider if the side effects don’t subside,” notes Glenn.

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