The Truth About Heart Disease

Advice from John Limpus of Urban Vitality

As we approach National Heart week, it is useful to know that Heart disease is STILL the UK’s biggest killer and that avoiding becoming another one of its victims is becoming harder than ever.

This fact is exacerbated by the amount of misleading advice given on the subject. Below are three of the biggest myths about heart disease and the truth behind what really works when it comes to keeping your heart healthy.

It’s not all about saturated fat
If Saturated fat is such a huge factor in Heart Disease why has heart disease continued to increase despite a DECREASE in animal fat consumption?

The truth is that Saturated fat was a large part of out diet in the early 20th century when heart disease was relatively rare; Inuits consumed up to 80% of their calorie requirement from it with few instances of heart disease.

If you want a clearer indication of where the cause lies look no further than the use of dietary vegetable oils, such as margarine, processed foods, and sugar which have increased by 60% during the same period.

Low cholesterol diets aren’t the answer either
Dietary cholesterol is consistently linked with Heart disease but the facts would suggest otherwise.

Whilst high Blood cholesterol levels ARE linked to coronary heart disease, research has consistently shown that moderately high cholesterol diets, (up to two eggs a day) showed NO sign of increasing blood cholesterol levels. High Blood cholesterol IS bad but there is no evidence linking moderately high cholesterol diets to high blood cholesterol. (It is important to know that low cholesterol can be as harmful to your health as high cholesterol)

In fact Diana Schwarzbien MD, in her book The Schwarzbien Principle, explains that a low cholesterol diet stimulates the body to over produce its own cholesterol.

It is also interesting to note that cortisol is the main hormone responsible for directing the over production of cholesterol. Cortisol is produced by sugar, stress, alcohol and nicotine.

It isn’t ALL about your genes
If we look purely at genetics, rather than lifestyle characteristics passed on from generation to generation, then the research done on heart disease would suggest that this plays a smaller role than was previously thought.

“The Nurses” Health study: Twenty year contribution to understanding the health of women” published in 1997 clearly states that ”contribution of genetics to most major chronic diseases remains small...for conditions such as heart disease perhaps 6-10% can be attributed to genetic factors.”

If chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease have only really existed for about 100 years, and genetic adaptations can take thousands of years, isn’t to logical to assume that the biggest factor is our own lifestyle and choices?

Then what is the Answer?
The answer is simply a return to the natural health fundamentals that have existed for years and that can all be discovered in our free report The Truth about Fat Loss available at www.theurbanvitalitycompany.co.uk

John Limpus

THE URBAN VITALITY COMPANY

May 30, 2008