In 2018, American cardiologists will put even more of their patients on harmful cholesterol-lowering drugs. And they’ll perform more dangerous and invasive heart procedures than ever.
Indeed, treating heart disease is big business in America. And maybe driving more business is the whole point of the new “Clinician’s Guide” published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, which gives cardiologists mis-guidance about the foods they should recommend to their patients with heart disease.
The guide is divided into three categories of foods. They include foods that have:
- Documented evidence of harm on cardiovascular health
- Limited evidence of harm or benefit on cardiovascular health
- Documented evidence indicating they benefit cardiovascular health.
As you might expect, some of the ACC’s recommendations completely miss the mark. They put some healthy foods in the wrong categories. And they completely ignore entire groups of healthy foods…
But the biggest problem I have with the ACC guide is that it doesn’t reflect the most up-to-date scientific research. It doesn’t even reflect research published within the last 10 years!
Instead, it simply promotes decades-old medical myths!
For one, it places full-fat dairy in the middle category — classifying it as a type of food for which there is “limited evidence of harm or benefit on cardiovascular health.”
This categorization probably stems from the debunked myth that full-fat dairy is bad for you. But it really couldn’t be further from the truth…
New research shows full-fat dairy supports cardiovascular health
As I reported last month, a new study from the University of Texas School of Public Health found that eating full-fat dairy isn’t harmful. In fact, they found quite the contrary — it might actually save your life!
In that study, higher fatty acid levels in the blood (associated with higher consumption of full-fat dairy products) didn’t contribute to cardiovascular disease and death in older adults. In fact, men and women who ate more full-fat dairy had fewer of these negative outcomes!
Plus, they had a whopping 42 percent lower risk of dying from stroke.
Other studies also show that consuming higher amounts of these fatty acids in full-fat dairy products reduced the risk of Type II diabetes and obesity — two major contributors to heart disease.
Unfortunately, as a consequence of the low-fat craze decades ago, many people still think they’re following good advice by opting for low-fat dairy products. But in actuality, these products contain high levels of unhealthy sugars, without the beneficial fats. So really, they’re counter-productive to good health.
And that point brings me to the next food mentioned in the ACC guide…sugar.
Granted, the ACC guide did place sugar in the first category — as a type of food where there is “documented evidence of harm on cardiovascular health.”
And that’s a big step forward for the ACC. For decades, they hid the truth about the dangers of sugars and carbs for your heart and health. (I authored an exposé on this in the March 2018 issue of my monthly newsletter, Insiders’ Cures, titled “Don’t fall victim to dietary deception.” If you’d like to subscribe, simply click here!)
The sugar industry’s not-so-sweet tactics
The big sugar industry led a campaign to falsely blame saturated fats — not sugar — as a major cause of heart disease. They even paid off scientists at Harvard and elsewhere to hide the truth.
Then quick to capitalize on the myth, processed food companies started offering “fat-free” packaged foods, which eliminated fat, and instead, incorporated higher amounts of unhealthy sugars and carbs.
The sugar industry even colluded with big government science bureaucrats at the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association to allow them to slap the ridiculously misleading label of “heart healthy” onto packaged, processed foods like cereal, egg substitutes, and canned tomato sauce.
Another rather disappointing part of the ACC’s clinician guide has to do with meat…
ACC misses the boat when it comes to meat
The ACC’s clinician’s guide makes absolutely no mention of meat, poultry, or seafood, which are all hugely important sources of protein and fat-soluble vitamins. (Perhaps, as the saying goes, “avoidance is a sign of guilt.”)
It’s clear that Americans still need guidance on where to look for good sources of protein…
For decades, the mainstream medical-industrial-government complex told us red meat (and anything containing saturated fat, like eggs) was a “heart attack on a plate.”
But we now know eating meat helps build muscle — including the heart muscle — especially among older adults.
Plus, current research shows there are three other very important reasons to eat meat, as I’ve previously explained. Just make sure to go for grass-fed, unprocessed, and nitrate-free meat.
Strive to eat a variety of foods
The ACC’s guide spotlights a few other random foods to which they’ve finally given the green light. And this includes coffee and alcohol. (I’ve only been touting their heart-healthy benefits for years now!)
Of course, as I explained last month, most dietary studies are flawed. Especially when trying to isolate the effects of a single food.
Likewise, many “experts” emphasize foods to exclude from your diet. But studies show it’s more important to include more of the right foods in your diet than it is to just avoid the wrong ones. In other words, your body is not defenseless.
The takeaway is this: Follow a sensible, balanced overall diet that includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, nuts, and olive oil. Also, go ahead and enjoy a healthy breakfast that includes eggs and full-fat dairy.
But don’t worry too much about only excluding and depriving yourself of certain foods — with the exception of sugar and artificially processed, packaged foods.
To learn more about how nutrition can benefit your heart health — as well as additional all-natural strategies for preventing and reversing heart disease — refer to my Heart Attack Prevention and Repair Protocol. Click here to learn more about this online learning tool, or to enroll today.
P.S. In tomorrow’s Daily Dispatch, I’ll tell you about a brand-new study that found men and women who suffer rare, permanent inflammation of the heart muscle were almost two times as likely to be taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs at the time of their diagnosis.
Source:
“A Clinician’s Guide for Trending Cardiovascular Nutrition Controversies,” American College of Cardiology, July 2018 72(5) 553-568