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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
Reason # 10,0000 why I like people like Sarah and her website: THEY ALWAYS DRINK UPSTREAM FROM THE HERD!!!! If the media says go straight, you better look both ways and pick another direction. Keep the vital info coming Sarah – it’s so important.
I love it: https://www.facebook.com/nourishingourchildren/posts/101754806623794
Intuitively, it makes sense to me that we are intended to consume fat because food found in nature is full fat. Low fat milk is denatured, it does not come from animals low fat. No one has proposed we create “low fat” breast milk?! There are “low fat” foods found in nature however, most of the food labeled as “low fat” is created in factories. Traditional cultures would discard lean meats. They prized the fat. Why? There are vital nutrients in traditional fats such as butter. A “low fat” diet is unsustainable for many. We feel deprived, and we are deprived.
I have been on a journey for the last ten years to find the best “diet” for my family. My son has already fought cancer, he was 5, and two of my boys are autistic. All three were diagnosed with ADHD. We had nutritionists and oncologists recommend diets for our kids and ourselves, but we never got healthy or better. So I started researching, and and cam across such conflicting reports, studies, opinions. I was overwhelmed. Being pushed by all large “forces” in our country into this food pyramid, we tried hard to do it the right way. To no avail. Then I happened upon Weston A Price foundation…… I was still nervous about doing things this way, thinking I may be setting my kids up for a life of heart disease and health issues. But I found the opposite to be true, and now with this Dr.’s report, I feel even more empowered I am doing the right thing. Thanks for this website!!!! My kdis are all off their ADHD meds, they are cured!! The funny thing is, the Dr.s can’t believe it, and just seem to shrug off that removing white sugar cured them. Why can’t they see the obvious? I am sure glad I have, thanks again.
Moms are leading the way to a healthier future and your personal story shows exactly how this is playing out in homes across North America and elsewhere in the world.. Thank you for sharing Carolyn.
I just want to say that is the yummiest butter picture I’ve seen in a long time! Ha.
ditto!
Very clear audio interview with Dr. Lundell:
http://www.livinlowcarbdiscussion.com/showthread.php?tid=3527
Sarah, I am going to print this out and show it to my primary care physician who said to go on the DASH diet as well as my gyn who said to go VEGAN.
Oh wow. Would I like to be a fly on the wall in the doctor’s office when you do that :))
Great article, and very interesting (and exciting) to watch the paradigm shift! Just yesterday I was reading these 2 articles below, great reads if you’re interested in more detail behind LDL cholesterol.
This area is very important to me, as my mother has been battling high cholesterol for years (with no actual health problems)- but her GP is telling her if she doesn’t start taking Lipitor she will have a stroke! I honestly don’t think this is the best option for her; however her father has heart problems and his father died of a heart attack at 40. I argue that was related to the fact they were both heavy smokers for many years, had very stressful jobs, and (in the past 10 years) has been made to follow a very low fat, high carbohydrate diet… A very difficult situation!!
Thank you for addressing this Sarah,
http://www.jpands.org/vol10no3/colpo.pdf
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35058896/ns/health-heart_health/t/bad-cholesterol-its-not-what-you-think/
Anna,
Thank you so much for posting the article from MSNBC. It cleared up sooooo many of the questions I have had about cholesterol for so long! I am also thrilled that it comes from a “mainstream” source and can balance my WAP sources. This is great!
Hey Sarah, I was wondering if you posted this because of the e-mail I sent you about a week and a half ago. I actually heard about it from my grandmother, who found out about it from listening to Rush Limbaugh (of all things! 🙂 ). Then they did an article on Natural News. I sent you links for both websites.
Anyway, SCORE FOR REAL FOODIES!!! 😀
Someone sent me the link to the source article above is how I found out about it (was it you? it might have been more than one person .. either way thank you!). I don’t listen to Rush (he irritates me too much with his combative style) so didn’t know Dr. Lundell was on the show. By the way, don’t beat me up about not liking Rush people. His egotistical personality just grates on my nerves.
Oh, Rush irritates me, too! 😀 Although he occasionally will have some interesting things to say (such as this whole thing), I normally don’t listen to him. It’s my grandmother who’s the listener!
I figured someone probably had sent you the info already, but I had to do it just in case! 😉
Thank you very much for sending. I love reader ideas and suggestions!!
He irritates me, too.
I was at my parents’ house the other day, and my dad commented that he was no longer “allowed” to eat grapefruit (which he ate every morning for breakfast for as long as I can remember). I asked why and the reason is that he’s on STATINS!! I was gobsmacked that he can no longer eat a natural FRUIT because he’s on an artificial DRUG. And yes, both my parents are on statins now… very sad.
My mother was a doctor before she retired, and I guess she was brainwashed by the medical industry… very sad. Of course, because my parents are both highly educated people they don’t listen to me when I tell them how dangerous statins are, and how artificially reducing a “number” doesn’t actually FIX anything. To FIX something you’ve got to get to the root cause and deal with it from there.
An open minded doctor is indeed a rarity which is one reason why my hat is off to Dr. Lundell who is no doubt paying the price by getting his reputation smashed to bits for speaking the truth like many others before him.