The ever-increasing rates of obesity and heart disease clearly illustrate the ramifications of this flawed approach. I recently interviewed Dr. Fred Kummerow on this topic. If you missed it, I highly recommend you take a moment to listen to it now.
A truly heart-healthy diet
If you want to protect your heart, you must avoid trans fats by eliminating all processed foods (which also includes most restaurant food). You also need to address your insulin and leptin resistance , which is a result of a diet too high in sugars and grains. To reduce your risk of heart disease , you should follow the suggestions below, which are explained in detail in my nutrition plan .
Avoid sugar, refined fructose, and grains. In practical terms, this means you should avoid most processed foods.
Eat a healthy diet with whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the carbohydrates in grains with:
Large quantities of vegetables
A low to moderate amount of high-quality protein (think organic farming, pasture-raised animals)
High-quality healthy fats (saturated and monounsaturated from animal sources and tropical oils). Most people actually need to increase fats to 50 to 85 percent of their diet for optimal health—far higher than the currently recommended 10 percent. Sources of healthy fats to add to your diet include:
Lawyers Butter made from organic, grass-fed raw milk Raw dairy products Organic pasture-raised egg yolks
Coconut and coconut oil Unheated organic walnut oils Raw nuts, such as almonds, pecans, macadamia nuts, and seeds Grass-fed meats
Maintaining a balanced omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is also crucial for heart health , as these fatty acids help build the cells lining your arteries that produce prostacyclin, the hormone that allows your blood to flow smoothly. Omega-3 deficiency can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor in up to 96,000 premature deaths each year. You can improve your omega-3 intake by avoiding most vegetable oils and increasing your consumption of small, wild-caught oily fish (such as sardines and anchovies) or by taking a high-quality krill oil supplement.Social Sciences
Should you eat more fruit for your heart?
