evidence as far back as the 1700s that, prior to industrialization and the availability of cheap commercially refined flour and sugar, people ate vastly more meat and fat, and far less carbohydrate.


In 1793, according to historian Harvey


Levenstein, Americans ate eight times as much meat as bread. As Taubes writes, “By one USDA estimate, the typical American was eating 178 pounds of meat annually in the 1830s, 40-60 pounds more than was reportedly being eaten a century later.” In 1937, Columbia University biochem-


ists David Rittenberg and Rudolf Schoen- heimer showed that dietary cholesterol had little effect on blood cholesterol. Warren Sperry, co-inventor of the blood test for cholesterol, came to the unambiguous conclusion: “The incidence and severity of [CAD] are not directly affected by the level of cholesterol in the blood per se.”


Inflammation is the Real Culprit


The problem is not the cholesterol level by itself but rather what happens to cholesterol in the body. Cholesterol is susceptible to a process called oxidation. Technically, oxida- tion is the loss of at least one electron. (A freshly cut apple turning brown is an exam- ple of oxidation.) When cholesterol becomes oxidized, it becomes stickier. By itself, this stickiness is not necessarily a problem. The real problem is what causes the oxidation in the first place.


Inflammation increases the presence of


free radicals; unstable molecules that steal electrons from other molecules, such as – you guessed it – cholesterol, thus causing oxidation and damage. Inflammation also damages the walls of the arteries, allowing otherwise harmless cholesterol molecules to worm into arterial walls causing plaque formation and vessel narrowing.


On...Nutrition and Heart Health


“Inflammation is a key factor in heart disease. Look beyond a low-fat diet for true heart health”


Vicki Kobliner, MS RD | vicki@holcarenutrition.com HolcareNutrition 3 Hollyhock Rd. • Wilton, CT • 06897 • 203-834-9949 • holcarenutrition.com


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