Brooker T sent me this very interesting article written by Dr. Dwight Lundell, a 25 year heart surgeon. I thought it was quite interesting in the way it simplified what he thinks causes heart disease. He begins by admitting that he for so long has been wrong about heart disease and what causes it – he now has a new understanding and belief system brought on by current research and years of experience. The incidence of heart disease is rising every year, even though we are continuing to push low fat, low animal protein, and high carbohydrate diets. Something is not working and much of it is caused by the increasing consumption of high carbohydrate foods and highly processed foods containing sugar and massive amounts of poly unsaturated fatty acids.
Dr. Lundell states that the main cause of heart disease is chronic inflammation.
“What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.”So it is not the protein and the fats that are killing us, but it is the high amount of processed carbohydrates and omega 6 fatty acids. This is the biggest battle we fight everyday at Synergy Strength when it comes to nutrition – fighting the common held beliefs that low fat and high carb is the answer to a healthy lifestyle and a trim waist line. We typically ask our clients to choose “whole food, real food”, which inevitably becomes much lower in carbohydrates and higher in fats and proteins and this drives our members to improve fitness and general health scores everyday.
Dr. Lundell goes on to make the statement;
“When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.”
This statement needs to be read twice as it is of utmost importance. The initial bio-signature session I have with clients involves primarily discussion around what healthy eating is and what regulates fat tissue – I challenge clients to view health and wellness in a different light. In a nutshell the above statement wraps up a much longer discussion needed with every client who is interested in nutrition as it must be understood how sugars (carbohydrates) influence blood glucose levels and how insulin influences fat storage and utilization. This is what we term regulation of fat tissue – this must be understood in order to begin a weight loss journey as it will greatly influence our nutritional choices. Control your insulin secretion by controlling your blood sugars and your weight loss goals will be much easier to attain.
Dr. Lundell then goes on to say’
“What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.”How do we best control blood sugars to avoid the sandpaper like irritation of excess blood sugars – it is simple, eat low glycemic index and load fruits and vegetable, high fiber foods, nutrient dense low caloric foods, and protein rich foods (meat and veggies for the most part). In doing so we can better control inflammation, which Dr. Lundell sees as the highest indicator of heart disease.
Making the above food choices is the best way to control your levels of inflammation as well as taking omega 3 fatty acids, which have been shown repeatedly to lower inflammatory responses. Dr. Lundell discusses the importance of maintaining a proper omega3 to 6 balance in your diet, which is rarely done in the western world due to the high level of omega 6 fatty acids in processed foods and cooking oils.
“Today’s mainstream American diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That’s a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today’s food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.”Attaining a 3:1 ratio is difficult in todays environment – your best choices are to reduce your intake of omega 6’s and increase your intake of omega 3’s. The best way to reduce omega 6’s is to drop your dietary intake (cooking oils – soybean, corn, etc) as much as possible and then increase your intake of omega 3’s by supplementation (3-12grams daily on average).
Take a look at the whole article HERE.
