Archive: Around Town

	A few years ago, my heart stopped functioning properly. A cardiac artery was blocked, and I felt some strange and scary symptoms. The blockage was relieved with a stent, and the hospital that installed it included a detailed lecture to all such patients. They don’t want to see us again. Heeding that information has kept me healthy, and I want to share what I’ve learned.

Do you live to eat or eat to live? We heart patients have to pay more attention to the latter option if we have much sense. I’ve been passing on what I learned about diet a few years ago, which is to avoid saturated fats. Yes, cholesterol, too, but let’s keep it simple: Just sticking to foods that have two grams or less of saturated fat per serving does the job.

Now, wouldn't you know it, new research questions this rule. My favorite news magazine, The Week, recently had a digest of an authoritative article that you need to read. So here it is.

“After four decades of persistent warnings that saturated fats should be avoided in healthy diets, new research is casting doubt on that claim. An extensive new analysis of nearly 80 studies involving 660,000 people has found no evidence linking the fats found in meat, butter, and cheese to an increased rate of heart disease, reports The New York Times. Researchers also found no evidence that unsaturated fats, such as the omega-3 fatty acids in salmon, reduce heart attack rates. Taken together, the findings muddy the waters in the ongoing debate about what’s best to eat. ‘These are interesting results that encourage careful reappraisal of our current nutritional guidelines,’ says researcher Rajiv Chowdhury of the University of Cambridge. While saturated fats are known to increase LDL, or ‘bad’ cholesterol, the new findings suggest that the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease is more complicated than previously thought. Researchers did confirm. however, that the much maligned trans fats, the partially hydrogenated oils found in processed foods, do have a direct link to heart disease.”

Notice that final sentence: Trans fats consistently fail the health test, so avoid processed food that has the word 'hydrogenated' anywhere in the ingredient list. That’s most processed food, and that’s poison. Don’t wonder why that movie popcorn drowned in fake butter is called a heart attack in a bucket.

But the forgoing material sounds exciting. This isn’t just a study, it’s a meta-analysis, a study of studies. Huge sample, consistent results. So a burger might be OK? Bacon? Real pizza? Ice cream? What?

Not so fast. Notice that Dr. Chowdhury said this calls for a 'careful reappraisal.' To jump to the conclusion that cheesecake is good for us would be like sighting junk floating in the ocean and announcing that we’ve found where the plane went down. Wait for that careful reappraisal.

In the meantime, I’m sticking to the healthy diet I was told to eat until I hear something definitive. I have an excellent cardiologist, and as I keep saying, the doctor is the final authority.

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