(
http://preventdisease.com)
Dr. Dwight Lundell, M.D., released a very humble and revealing article in 2012 on the true causes of heart disease. He opens his statement by freely admitting that he and the other prominent physicians he had trained with for years were wrong about their assumptions on heart disease. Scientific literature and seminars had convince him and his colleagues that heart disease simply resulted from high cholesterol and that the only way to treat it was to prescribe cholesterol-lowering medications and low-fat diets.
Lundell then goes on to state how it was discovered "a few years ago that
inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease.... The long-established dietary recommendations have
created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences."
He then says that, even though 25% of the U.S. population takes statin drugs and we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans are dying of heart disease than ever before. Inflammation is what causes cholesterol to accumulate in the walls of blood vessels and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely around the body, so inflammation is what is to blame for heart disease.
Lundell explains that inflammation is your body's natural defense to a foreign invader, such as a bacteria, toxin or virus, and that chronic inflammation occurs when the human body is continuously exposed to injury by toxins or foods that it was never designed to process. He then makes a shocking statement: "
The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine."
According to Lundell, the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and their derivative products) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils, such as soybean, corn and sunflower, that are found in many processed foods. These are exactly the kind of foods that have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades, all the while slowly poisoning everyone.
While omega-6 oils are essential, they must be in correct balance with omega-3s. The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in today's mainstream American diet is ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1, while the correct, healthy balance would be around 3:1.
All the processed, sugar-packed, oil-soaked foods we eat contribute to chronic inflammation and cardiovascular disease. In order to rid ourselves of inflammation, we must return to foods closer to their natural state. People should choose complex carbohydrates in the form of colorful fruits and vegetables. Olive oil or butter from grass-fed beef are healthier choices than corn or soybean oil. Modern medicine's mistaken cholesterol theory led to the very diets causing inflammation and heart disease today.
Lundell concludes his article with hopeful advice: "What you can do is choose
whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from
fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet."
Dr. Dwight Lundell's full article can be found
here.
[All emphases in original.]
