Are you looking to reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes? According to John Richie, PhD, a professor of public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine, a lower protein diet may be your ticket to better metabolic health. Richie and his team arrived at this conclusion after examining data from the Third National Examination and Nutritional Health Survey. In their study Trusted Source, they looked at data from 11,576 people. The study participants were interviewed about what they’d eaten in the past 24 hours. Then, the team used the U.S. Department of Agriculture Survey Nutrient Database to calculate their nutrient intakes. Their blood was also analyzed for various cardiometabolic disease biomarkers. Cardiometabolic diseases include such conditions as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Abnormalities in certain blood tests — such as cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, and insulin — are associated with an increased risk for cardiometabolic disease. The researchers found that people whose diets contained fewer sulfur amino acids had lower risk scores.