If you want to lose weight and improve heart health, stop counting calories and concentrate on eating a nutritious diet, say researchers.

Some lifestyle changes can improve your risk factors for heart disease quickly, say the researchers in an editorial in the journal Open Heart.

The editorial noted that evidence shows poor dietary choices are responsible for more disease and death than physical inactivity, smoking, and alcohol combined.

They pointed out that one study found that heart attack survivors were more likely to avoid a second heart attack during the length of the study if they were advised to eat fish. 
Improvements were seen within a few months. On the other hand, foods containing trans fats can increase the levels of inflammation in the blood within a few weeks.

The researchers commented on an Action for Health in Diabetes trial which found that a low calorie diet in addition to increased physical activity in patients with Type 2 diabetes was not associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular death over 13.5 years despite significant weight loss.

They pointed out that not all calories are equal.

A can of soda contains about 150 calories, and is tied to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes.

But while a handful of nuts or four tablespoons of olive oil contain about 500 calories, both are associated with a lower risk of heart disease and stroke.

The researchers wrote that estimates show that increasing nut consumption by two servings a week could reduce cardiovascular deaths by 90,000 in the U.S.

"Shifting focus away from calories and emphasizing a dietary pattern that focuses on food quality rather than quantity will help to rapidly reduce obesity, related diseases and cardiovascular risk," the editorial said.

"It is time to stop counting calories, and time to instead promote good nutrition and dietary changes that can rapidly and substantially reduce cardiovascular mortality," they wrote.

"The evidence indeed supports the mantra that 'food can be the most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.'"