Links Between Coronary Heart Disease and Diet

The popular phrase "Ignorance is bliss" is tragically inaccurate when applied to dietary choices. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) food pyramid promotes a high carbohydrate, low meat diet that is readily endorsed by cardiologists. However, someone forgot to tell Greenland eskimos, whose diet is almost exclusively meat, along with primitive people groups throughout the world who stay in surprising good health while eating a diet that turns the food pyramid upside down. Our food supply is made up of fats, carbohydrates and protein so let's take an honest look at each one to find out what is good and bad from the heart's perspective.

Saturated Fats

• The medical establishment believes that high fat and cholesterol diets cause heart disease. However, the fat that our bodies convert into cholesterol is used to repair artery damage caused by inflammation. A 2004 study by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition concluded that post-menopausal women on low fat diets could slow the progression of coronary atherosclerosis by increasing their consumption of saturated fat.

Red Meat

• The bad press on red meat overlooks the Indians of the American plains who lived healthy lives eating buffalo meat. Westernized Indians on the reservations who eat more grains than meat have a high incidence of obesity with many heart ailments. Since red meat contains A, D and B vitamins, minerals and essential circulatory enhancers like Carnitine, Taurine and CoQ10, some might say that it is your heart's best friend.

Carbohydrates

• The grains at the bottom of the food pyramid have high levels of inflammatory Omega-6 fatty acids. During digestion these carbohydrates are converted into glucose, a simple sugar, which stimulates overproduction of insulin. This excess insulin causes your metabolism to store fats instead of oxidizing them and activates an enzyme that triggers inflammation. The result is thickening and clotting of the blood and hardening of the arteries.

Fiber

• If we don't get enough vitamins and minerals, our heart suffers and fiber absorbs these nutrients, carrying them out of the body. Fiber is also an important food supply for toxin producing bacteria and yeasts that can weaken the heart.

Protein

• The June 1981 issue of "Nutrition Reviews" reported that even a small protein deficit in the body reduces T-cell function by 30 to 35 percent. Since the cell walls, interferons and antibodies are composed of protein, our immune system can't live without it. A suppressed immune system exposes the heart to damage from bacteria and viruses that can cause cardiomyopathy and other heart conditions.