The Fats and Foods That Harm Your Heart

We’ve long been told that cholesterol and saturated fats (mostly found in animal foods like meat and dairy) are the cause of heart disease.

The preponderance of scientific and historical evidence continues to indicate that this is NOT the case.

As I’ve written about previously, damage to arteries around the heart is caused by chronic inflammation.

Research has shown that people consuming diets higher in plant fats (unsaturated fats) like soybean oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, etc. have higher rates of cardiovascular disease than people consuming animal fats (mostly saturated fats) like tallow, butter, ghee, lard, etc.

Why?

Plant fats are highly processed and include abnormally high levels of omega-6 fatty acids. These fatty acids contribute to oxidative damage (inflammation) to the vascular tissue over time, leading to the body attempting to repair the damage through the production of atherosclerotic plaques.

There are many contributing inflammatory factors involved in the vascular inflammation process, such as chronically high emotional stress, sedentary lifestyles, and other inflammatory compounds in our food and environment.

However, over the past 50-100 years, we have replaced healthy traditional fats like butter, tallow, and lard, with processed, industrial inflammation-promoting fats like canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, corn, and peanut oils.

These changes have occurred due to recommendations by government health organizations, and have had a disastrous effect on our health, and in my opinion has been one of the single most significant contributing factors to the skyrocketing increase in chronic degenerative disease, including heart disease.

One of the best changes one can make for their health, is to replace all vegetable and seed oils with high quality animal fats.

These fats are what nourished generations of humans that had robust health and minimal disease long before the industrialization of food began in the past 100 years.