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Dr. Dwight Lundell MD is a cardiologist who beat the drum of a low-fat diet and cholesterol-lowering drugs to prevent heart disease for over 25 years.
He has performed over 5,000 open heart surgeries and trained with prominent “opinion maker” physicians who considered any deviation from the recommended therapy of severely limited fat intake and cholesterol-lowering meds to reduce heart disease risk complete heresy that could possibly result in a malpractice lawsuit.
Dr. Lundell now admits that this long-held notion is wrong. Not only is it completely and utterly wrong, but it is also scientifically and morally indefensible.
Following the recommended mainstream diet low in saturated fat and high in grain-based carbohydrates has created an epidemic of obesity and diabetes “the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences”.
By following the recommended low-fat diet, Dr. Lundell says that people are unknowingly causing “repeated injury to their blood vessels”. This repeated injury, day in and day out, is what is causing rampant inflammation across all population groups which has resulted in the epidemic of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
Inflammation the True Cause of Heart Disease
Dr. Lundell explains that a slow paradigm shift that identifies inflammation as the true cause of heart disease is occurring.
He goes on to say that the conventional low-fat diet which warns against saturated fats and promotes polyunsaturated vegetable oils as a healthier alternative is the biggest culprit in causing chronic and deadly inflammation.
Unless inflammation is present in the body, cholesterol is unable to accumulate in plaques in the blood vessels causing heart attacks and strokes. In an inflammation free body, cholesterol moves freely and causes no health problems.
In other words, it is inflammation caused by a low-fat diet that causes cholesterol to become trapped in the body. Cholesterol-lowering drugs have been a dismal failure to eliminate or reduce the problem as 25% of the population now takes statin drugs and yet more Americans than ever will die of heart disease this year.
In short, blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming fire fighters for fires.
How One Innocent Donut Causes Deadly Inflammation
Dr. Lundell explains the deadly 3 step process of how eating a simple donut or sweet roll causes a cascade of inflammation in the body:
Step One: Refined Grains and Sugar Consumption Spike Blood Sugar
Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.
When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.
What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.
Step Two: Omega 6 Vegetable Oils Produce Cytokines
It’s not just the refined grains and sugar in the donut causing spiking and crashing blood sugar that is the problem. Dr. Lundell continues by describing additional inflammation caused by the rancid omega 6, polyunsaturated oils (usually soybean) in the donut:
That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6’s are essential -they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell — they must be in the correct balance with omega-3’s.
If the balance shifts by consuming excessive omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.
Step Three: Excess Weight Pours Out Pro-Inflammatory Chemicals
The final nail in the coffin for producing exorbitant levels of inflammation when that innocent-looking donut is consumed is the excess weight that most Americans are carrying:
To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, Alzheimer’s disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.
Ditch the Lowfat Diet and Get Off the Inflammation Freight Train
Dr. Lundell counsels that mainstream medicine has made “a terrible mistake” by advising people to avoid saturated fats in favor of grain-based foods containing vegetable oils. This flawed and dangerous recommendation is a direct contributor to the epidemic of inflammation that is plaguing the Western world in the form of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and numerous other ailments.
Dr. Lundell advises to leave manufactured vegetable oils and other processed foods behind and return to the whole, unprocessed diet of our ancestors.
As for the ideal fats in the diet, Dr. Lundell recommends olive oil and grass-fed butter. He says the science that saturated fat causes heart disease is non-existent and the science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol as very weak.
Given that inflammation and not cholesterol cause heart disease, any concern about saturated fats in the diet is nothing short of “absurd” according to Dr. Lundell.
Sources and More Information
Heart Surgeon Speaks Out on What Really Causes Heart Disease
The High Risks of Low Cholesterol
Cholesterol Myths to Wise Up About
What Oxidizes the Cholesterol in Eggs?
The 9 Irrefutable Benefits of Cholesterol in the Diet
How to people on this type of diet control weight?
A gram of fat has 9 calories, vs 4 calories for the same mass of protein or carbohydrates.
I haven’t seen anyone recommend refined carbs. I just cant imagine trying to control my weight when eating a diet with a high level of fats in it? I get hungry and only am able to fill up on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Zach,
Your body will change from a “carb” burner to a “fat” burner. You use up all the fat you put into your body. You will have a lot of energy and feel so much better. I myself lost 57 pounds in 9 to 10 months without any exercise. I also do not have all the flabby skin you get with such a fast weight drop. If you still get hungry you are probably not eatting enough fat. While losing weight I ate anywhere between 70 to 84 grams of protein, 70 grams of fat, and 54 to 60 carbs a day. I now eat around 70 protein, 110 to 140 fat, and around 70 carbs a day.
Danyell, I completely agree with this statement. I too have had a similar experience with weight loss. I have never been overweight- maybe by about 5kg or so. Following a low fat diet however I was always bloated and never seemed to be able to lose that last bit of weight- despite running 5-10km a day, 5 days a week!!
I now follow a high fat diet, with heavily reduced carbs, cardio only once a week and I feel great. I think if you’re worried about weight its carbs you should be wary about not fat.
Best of luck,
I weight the same as the day I graduated college but I guarantee if I ate the way conventional medicine (heavy emphasis on whole grains with little to no fat) recommends I would be 30 lbs heavier for sure. Maybe more. Fat keeps that blood sugar steady freddy and that is what you want for long term health and the easiest weight maintenance possible for your individual metabolism. Some have a harder time maintaining their weight for sure but the easiest route for anyone is to keep blood sugar as steady as possible and a high fat, even ketogenic diet is the way to go to accomplish this.
You do not get nearly as hungry as if you are on grains, fruits, and vegetables. E.g., I have eggs and avocado in the morning and do not feel hungry until dinner time. My total caloric intake is lower on fatty foods than on fruits and veggies, which is not to say that they do not play an important role in my diet.
Um, have you SEEN Sarah or Paula? Not to mention me, my siblings, many of my friends, my mother…
And if you can’t get full on whole fats like butter and olive oil, you aren’t eating enough of them!
It has less to do with HOW MANY calories (although that is still part of the story) and more to do with the TYPE of calories, and how and when you consume them. I’d recommend the books “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes, and “The Warrior Diet” by Ori Hofmekler. They are both fascinating reads.
Oh, by the way, Sarah meaning the Healthy Home Economist, and Paula meaning Paula Jager, the fitness blogger. Both very fit and healthy ladies!
Well said, Ariel.
Thanks, Stanley!
What a great website, and blog. The body does need some fats, and carbs in order to function. Imagine not putting oil in your car, it would not run properly. Also, so many people are gluten intolerant, and possibly should be feeding themselves and their families gluten free food. My partner has been diagnosed with Asperger’s and I read that if he were to eat gluten free food, it may help to eliminate these issues. Check out this link to get more info:
Great post, and this is so important for everybody to know. Low fat diets can kill people.
A friend of mine managed a health club. He called me one week, shaken because three of the clubs members died. All three were men in their forties, who had been on low fat diets for a long time. All three of them had very low body fat, All three of them worked out for many hours, every week., mostly cardio. All three of them died of heart attacks.
Our bodies need healthy fats to function properly.
my grandmother… apparently at one time was an a NON- fat diet….that almost killed her….and I was like”GRANDMA what made you think NO FAT WAS HEALTHY??” and she said “Fat is bad for you.” same with a cousin who passed out from not eating any carbs….people really need to get educated on food.
As you can see by my profile image, I am assuredly astute…
@Howard very astute observation.
? How can a Dr have his license revoked AFTER he retires? More importantly, why? He’s retired. Not practicing. Done. Finished. Cannot harm or help anymore. Here’s why – to deliberately vilify him and discredit him.
@ Kenny Again, I question all of this. Stripping a doctor of his license is the usual tactic for those that deviate from the cardiology standard of care which includes statin drugs and lowfat diet. All doctors lose patients sometimes and a cardiologist especially. It would be easy for a deep pocketed organization like the AMA to find something here and there to crucify a doctor with. My father (retired MD) was sued once for something that was completely not his fault and I know what kind of baloney comes out during these types of witch hunts.
Its great to know that a member of the medical establishment is telling the truth about traditional foods.