How to Find the Best Protein Powder for Heart Patients

📌 Overview and Key Takeaways

This is a Certified Nutrition Coach’s guide on how to find the best protein powder for heart patients.

Discover how to safely meet your protein needs.

Last Updated
Jul 21, 2026

Author and Medical Reviewer

Written by Jack, CNC

Jack is a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Nutrition Coach.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice. Consult a licensed healthcare professional before making changes to your diet.

Protein Powder for Heart Patients

Is Protein Powder Good for Heart Patients?

A heart patient is someone who has been diagnosed with a form of heart disease or cardiovascular condition.

This includes individuals with coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease, arrhythmias, or other structural or functional cardiac abnormalities.

Although diet is a cornerstone of secondary prevention in heart disease, protein supplementation is not universally recommended for cardiovascular risk reduction or event prevention.

That said, meeting your total daily protein needs might be beneficial for patients with heart disease in specific contexts.

For instance, research suggests that a high protein diet might modestly improve cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, total and LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (Nutr Rev, 2025).

This might be in part because increasing the percentage of your calories that come from protein could help you achieve and maintain a healthy body weight (Nutrients, 2021).

A protein-rich diet might also naturally reduce the consumption of high-fat and refined-sugar foods.

Maintaining a healthy body weight is important for heart patients because excess fat accelerates atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in arteries), promotes adverse changes in cardiac function, and increases the risk of related health problems such as hypertension (high blood pressure).

How Much Protein Do Heart Patients Need?

For patients with heart disease, the minimum recommended protein intake is the same as it for other adults – 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day.

Protein intake should always be individualized, however, and adjusted for related health conditions, nutritional status, and rehabilitation goals.

In patients with heart failure, for example, randomized trials and systematic reviews suggest that higher protein intakes – 1.1 or more grams per kilogram of body weight per day – might support improvements in functional capacity, lean body mass, and quality of life (Nutrients, 2025).

Keep in mind that heart patients should get as much protein as they can from foods like eggs, fish, legumes, meat, nuts, and seeds.

Meeting your protein needs this way can be challenging, however, especially for individuals with dietary or lifestyle restrictions.

If this is the case for you, then adding protein powder to your diet might be a great way to meet your protein needs.

That said, not all protein powders are created equal.

What Is the Best Protein Powder for Heart Patients?

Many protein powders contain ingredients that might contribute to poor outcomes for heart patients.

Among these potentially harmful ingredients are food additives and protein concentrates and isolates.

🚫 Avoid Food Additives

Regularly consuming emulsifiers, thickeners, artificial sweeteners, and other ultra-processed additives might alter the composition and function of your gut microbiome (North Clin Istanb, 2020).

These shifts, known as gut dysbiosis, might contribute to the development and progression of multiple cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure, and heart attack (Circ Res, 2017).

Gut dysbiosis might worsen cardiovascular disease by increasing harmful metabolites (substances produced during metabolism), reducing helpful short-chain fatty acids (beneficial compounds produced by gut bacteria), and driving inflammation.

It is important to note that while the preliminary evidence is compelling, more research is needed to clarify this relationship.

⚠️ Here is a list of the most common food additives in protein shakes and powders:

• acacia fiber
• acacia gum
• acesulfame potassium
• artificial flavors
• ascorbic acid
• aspartame
• calcium carbonate
• carrageenan
• cellulose gum
• dextrin
• dicalcium phosphate
• dipotassium phosphate
• erythritol
• gellan gum
• guar gum
• gum arabic
• inulin
• locust bean gum
• maltitol
• maltodextrin
• mono- and diglycerides
• ‘natural’ flavors
• rice bran extract
• rice dextrin
• rice hulls
• rosemary extract
• silica
• silicon dioxide
• sodium alginate
• soluble corn fiber
• sorbitol
• soy lecithin
• sucralose
• sunflower lecithin
• tocopherols
• tricalcium phosphate
• xanthan gum
• xylitol
• zinc oxide

As a rule of thumb, if you cannot find it in nature or make it at home, it is probably a food additive.

🚫 Avoid Protein Concentrates and Isolates

You might also want to avoid protein concentrates and isolates.

Most protein shakes and powders are made from one or both of these ultra-processed protein sources, which have been mechanically and chemically stripped of everything but the protein.

This includes the enzymes, fiber, and other natural digestive aids that help you break them down.

You therefore do not digest them in the same way that you do whole foods, which could affect your gut health.

For example, one study shows that regularly consuming protein concentrates and isolates might disrupt your gut microbiome (Nutrients, 2018).

Another study shows that it could cause the formation of toxic byproducts in your gut (Mol Nutr Food Res, 2024).

Although further research is needed, individuals with sensitive stomachs can play it safe by choosing protein shakes and powders made from minimally-processed protein sources like egg whites and almonds.

They might be more gut-friendly.

Order Samples to see for yourself.

Sources

1. Nutrition Reviews (Nutr Rev). Impact of Quantity and Type of Dietary Protein on Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Using Standard and Network Meta-analyses of Randomized Controlled Trials. 2025.
2. Nutrients (Nutrients). Are Dietary Proteins the Key to Successful Body Weight Management? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Studies Assessing Body Weight Outcomes after Interventions with Increased Dietary Protein. 2021.
3. Nutrients (Nutrients). High-Protein Dietary Interventions in Heart Failure: A Systematic Review of Clinical and Functional Outcomes. 2025.
4. Northern Clinics of Istanbul (North Clin Istanb). Food additives and microbiota. 2020.
5. Circulation Research (Circ Res). Gut Microbiota in Cardiovascular Health and Disease. 2017.
6. Nutrients (Nutrients). Effect of a Protein Supplement on the Gut Microbiota of Endurance Athletes: A Randomized, Controlled, Double-Blind Pilot Study. 2018.
7. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research (Mol Nutr Food Res). In Vitro Fermentation of Animal and Plant Protein Isolates by the Human Gut Microbiota Under High and Low Carbohydrate Conditions. 2024.

Editorial Guidelines

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This article was written by a Certified Nutrition Coach and reviewed by a Registered Dietitian. We rely on peer-reviewed research and trusted medical sources, and regularly update our content to ensure accuracy and clarity.