In an attempt to control the leading cause of death in our culture — heart disease — the medical profession has focused on dietary fats.
Most recently, we are told the problem is saturated fats, which are highest in meat and other animal products. The “heart-healthy” advice is to not eat meat, consume low-fat foods and use vegetable oils in place of butter and lard.
During my nutrition training, I was taught the primary dietary cause of heart disease was processed foods, especially sugar, and other refined carbohydrates. The mechanism likely involved vitamin and mineral deficiency caused by the processing of the food, as well as damage to the blood vessels of the heart from chronically high blood sugar.
For example, whole wheat flour is a good source of vitamin E, long known to protect the heart, but the processing involved to turn it into white flour almost completely eliminates it. Studies have suggested that artificial vitamin E, added back into the food, is not nearly as effective as eating foods rich in vitamin E. One review of the research actually suggests artificial vitamin E “might be associated with an increase in total mortality, heart failure and hemorrhagic stroke.” This is because the vitamin is used in a highly processed, refined form, which is foreign to our bodies, just like the sugar and white flour that started the problem in the first place.
The mechanism of sugar causing heart disease is becoming clearer with new understandings of sugar metabolism. The sugar molecule is “sticky” and attaches itself to certain structures of the body, such as the lens of the eye and the lining of blood vessels. This is why diabetes is associated with vision loss and poor circulation in the legs. When the sugar molecule damages the arteries of the heart, the body’s attempts to repair this damage include laying down cholesterol. Blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming fire trucks for the damage caused by fires.
The medical profession is starting to recognize this fact. A recent article in the online medical journal Open Heart titled “The wrong white crystals” describes how salt is not the culprit they thought it was in causing high blood pressure and heart disease — it more likely is sugar.
Mainstream medical advice changes constantly. First, hydrogenated fats are good for the heart, then they are bad — actually, they are very, very bad for the heart. Dietary cholesterol is bad, then it isn’t. Now saturated fats are bad. But the wellness approach to nutrition has not changed and in fact has been proven true by all these dietary diversions. The true dietary culprit is processed food of any type but especially refined carbs. They are unbalanced foods, deficient in many nutrients, and overly high in others.
During the 1930s, Dr. Weston Price, a dentist who had an interest in nutrition, traveled the world investigating the health of people who lived native lifestyles before they were exposed to Western settlers. He found native humans to be largely immune to heart disease, as well as most “diseases of civilization,” despite the fact their diets varied tremendously from region to region. While there was no single diet that protected them from heart disease, there was one that consistently caused it — the “modern” diet, high in sugar, white flour and processed foods.
Dr. Michael Noonan practices chiropractic, chiropractic acupuncture and other wellness therapies in Old Town. He can be reached at noonanchiropractic@gmail.com.