We need to change our dietary protein sources, if we are to significantly reduce our risk of heart disease, stroke, and arterial blockages and damages all over our body, all of which make cardiovascular illnesses the number one killer in the affluent societies around the globe.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends eating fish (particularly fatty fish) at least two times a week. Omega-3 fatty acids have been linked to a lower risk of death from heart disease. And fattier fish, like salmon and sardines, herring and albacore tuna, are high in two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids: DHA and EPA. The AHA also notes that fish is a good source of protein, and it doesn’t have the high levels of saturated fat that fatty meats do.
People not known to have heart disease should eat a variety of types of fish at least twice a week, says AHA communications manager Julie Del Barto.
Those who have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease should eat about one gram of fish omega-3s per day, preferably from fatty fish. While fish contain varying levels of omega-3s, that might work out to around three ounces of salmon or tuna, or six ounces of pollock, flounder, or sole, according to the AHA web site.
Young children, along with women who are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or nursing, should avoid fish with higher levels of mercury, like shark, swordfish, tile fish and king mackerel, according to the FDA. Everyone else can eat up to 7 ounces of high-mercury fish per week.
This most convincing confirmation of the deadly effects of saturated fats and high cholesterol foods (mostly from red meat like pork and beef) came from more than a quarter of century studies on 84,000 nurses, who were studied, tested, and followed up for 26 years.
Other studies have shown that consumption of saturated fats (red meats and products with red meat) also increases cancer risk, besides metabolic diseases, like diabetes and arthritis, etc.
The comprehensive investigation (Nurses’ Health Study) was conducted by Dr. Adam Bernstein of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA) and his colleagues, and was published in the August 16, 2010 issue of Circulation. The data from this systematic and meta-analysis on 84,136 nurses, between 30 to 55 years of age, who were all healthy at year one, reported 2210 incidents of nonfatal heart attack, and 952 deaths from heart attack, involving those who ate red meat regularly.
The multivariable analysis revealed that consumption of red meat and high-fat dairy (eggs, cheese, regular milk, etc) resulted in elevated risk for coronary heart disease, while greater intake of fish, poultry, and nuts was significantly liked to lower risk. One serving per day of nuts led to 30% lower risk of heart disease compared to one serving of red meat; 24% lower risk with fish; and, 19% lower risk with poultry, when these are consumed instead of red meat.
Another study by Dr. Renata Micha at Harvard School of public health in Boston showed that processed red meat (bacon, hamburger, hot dogs, etc) was worse: 42 percent increased risk for coronary heart disease and 19 percent risk for diabetes. Dietary iron from red meat, called Heme iron, and compounds resulting from cooking red meat (heterocyclic amines and advanced glycation end-products) were positively linked to increased risk of heart attack and fatality, not to mention cancer in general.
“Replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats significantly reduced the risk of coronary heart disease…When major sources of protein, such as nuts and fish, are used to replace red meat, saturated fat, heme iron, and sodium decrease, whereas intake of polyunsaturated (good) fat increases,” concluded the study.
Our red-meat eating culture is obviously unhealthy. With all the scientific data we now know, it behooves all of us, men and women, and especially children, to re-evaluate our diet, and seriously consider eliminating or drastically cutting down on red meat, and choosing the healthier options of fish, poultry, beans, nuts, and vegetable protein sources.
Calcium and heart attack
Taking plain calcium supplement (without co-administered vitamin D) has been found to be linked to increase risk of heart attack, according to an article in the July 29, 2010 issue of the British Medical Journal, which reported on 15 randomized trials on 11,921 individuals.
This study justifies the reassessment of calcium supplement for prevention or treatment of osteoporosis, whose efficacy has been called to question, anyway. Since vitamin D3 is cardio-protective, besides lowering the risk for colon cancer, the calcium supplement, if taken at all, is safer when it comes with, or taken with, vitamin D3.
The role of calcium in osteoporosis is marginal, at best, and there are options today that are more much more effective, sans the risk reported linked to calcium supplements. Of course, there are conditions causing hypo-calcemia that justifies its continued used as a supplement, together with vitamin D3.
Dr. John Schindler of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, PA, stated that the safest thing is “to get your dietary calcium from good dietary sources, such as yogurt, sardines, and skim milk that potentially might be all you need to ward off the risk of osteoporosis. Then we don’t have to deal with this increased cardiovascular risk.”
If you think about it, practically all things in the environment Mother Nature has given us, in their original pristine, unprocessed, unadulterated, uncontaminated form, are the healthiest, including the human mind.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email: [email protected]
