Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease with Plant-Based Diet

Heart disease remains one of the most prevalent health issues worldwide, affecting millions of people across all backgrounds. Too many of us know someone who suffer(ed) from it. Maybe it was a member of our family, our loved one, or a friend’s dad we know from work.

It’s so frequent that we barely find it surprising. When we hear Maggy from work saying she was diagnosed with it, it doesn’t shock us. On the contrary, it’s almost as if we expected it to happen. “She had a family history, her dad died from it, it was unavoidable” people often comment.

But is it really that normal to suffer from it, and can we do something about it, find out in this article.

Staggering Statistics

Let's first go through some of the statistics.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide for both men and women, claiming approximately 18 million lives each year. On average, someone loses their life to it every 33 seconds.

In the US alone, more than half a million people die of heart disease each year, 3x as many have a heart attack, and approximately 3 million more have a "silent" heart attack, where people feel minimal symptoms and don't know they've had one until the damage is done.

The US spends more than $250 billion a year on heart disease. This money doesn’t go to prevention, but to expensive procedures, operations, and drugs.

Women are more likely to be affected

Although it is considered a “man's disease”, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women worldwide and kills more of them than all forms of cancer combined. Nearly 45% of women over the age of 20 live with some form of heart disease. Only during the last decades has awareness been rising how cardiovascular disease affects women differently from men, alerting women to their greater risk.

Women have different symptoms

The symptoms of heart disease in women can differ from those in men, which can contribute to poor recognition of the disease and a slow response. In addition to the well-known pain in the chest and left arm, symptoms of a heart attack in women include pain in both arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach; shortness of breath, fatigue, breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or vomiting, dizziness and weakness. These are fairly general symptoms that occur with a variety of other diseases, which can further confuse an individual and delay the necessary rapid intervention that would save their lives.

Cause of Disease

Now we know how prevalent it is, but do we know what causes it? Is it some mysterious condition that randomly chooses its victims and attacks out of nowhere? Of course not. Various studies have shown that along with lack of physical activity, diet is one of the most important factors that can influence the development of heart disease.

With alarming numbers that are growing every year, it's clear that people who eat a standard western diet all their lives are at great risk.

The following study confirms that. Dr. Lewis Kuller of the University of Pittsburgh reported the 10-year findings of the Cardiovascular Health Study, a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

His astonishing conclusion was that "all humans over the age of 65 exposed to a traditional Western lifestyle, have cardiovascular disease and should be treated as such." In other words, the real concern isn't whether individuals have some form of heart disease, but rather that they must begin treatment immediately.

Now let’s see some breakingview studies that could give us the answers to these burning questions.

Studies Done on Children and Young Soldiers Gave Shocking Results

Back in 1953, an article was published as a result of a study that greatly influenced the view on the development of heart disease. At that time, processed foods were rare, and the vast majority of people ate a standard Western diet that included animal foods.

In the study, 300 autopsies were performed on US soldiers, victims of the Korean War. These were young men in their early 20’s and physically very fit.

As many as 77% of them had visible evidence of coronary atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Some of them had a staggering 90% or more of blood vessels blocked. For such young people and very physically active, this was very surprising.

The Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that atherosclerotic changes in the coronary arteries appear years, even decades, before symptoms appear later in life, and when heart disease becomes a clinically recognized problem.

Subsequent studies over the following years on the hearts of thousands of soldiers confirmed these results.

How Early Does Heart Disease Start?

Now we probably ask ourselves when exactly does it start? Because most of us feel fine until our 30’s and 40’s, and then ‘all of a sudden’ a heart attack happens, or our doctor tells us to ‘lay off butter and bacon’.

Studies conducted on children (autopsies) showed that fatty streaks, which are the first stage of atherosclerosis, were found in the arteries of almost 100% of children up to the age of 10.

It Starts in the Womb

The American Heart Association cautions that atherosclerosis may start even before birth. Researchers found that the arteries of fetuses whose mothers had high LDL cholesterol levels were more likely to contain arterial lesions, suggesting atherosclerosis may start during pregnancy.

What is responsible for this plaque build-up so early in life, and even before birth?

It turns out that dietary cholesterol and saturated fat have been shown to be the main risk factors.

Plaque then continues to form in our 20’s, worsens in our 30’s, and then in our 40’s serious consequences occur. It can manifest differently in different parts of the body - in the heart as a heart attack, in the brain as a stroke, or in the aorta as an aneurysm. Sadly, these conditions are all too prevalent.

Given all the information available to us today, the question is no longer whether a person over the age of 10 should prevent heart disease, but whether they want to cure the disease they already have. Heart association therefore advises eating multiple servings of fruits and vegetables daily to establish good heart health.

Dietary Cholesterol and Saturated fat - a Dangerous Combo

One of the biggest myths in the nutrition world is that saturated fat intake doesn’t raise cholesterol levels and doesn’t affect the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth, as numerous studies today show.

The two seem to work as a power-couple when it comes to adverse health effects, as their combination amplifies the cholesterol raising effects and accelerates the damage done.

The study Tolerable upper intake levels for trans fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol, Nutrition Reviews states - “we clearly see that saturated fat has a very consistent LDL-Cholesterol raising effect. The increase is so predictable that there’s even an equation called the “Keys Equation” which can calculate how much cholesterol levels will increase with added saturated fat.”

Today, many influencers and online fitness and nutrition gurus promote eating animal products, even in large quantities, because 'cholesterol is important for health'. Cholesterol is indeed vital for us and that is why every cell in our body produces it in adequate amounts, and without harmful effects. Dietary cholesterol is not only unnecessary, but also harmful to us.

It seems that the human body doesn’t have a good tolerance for it. According to the Institute of Medicine - any level of intake of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol above 0% increases the concentration of LDL cholesterol, which automatically increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Dietary cholesterol and animal fats are considered the main cause of other chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and obesity. These two substances are found only in animal products, plants don’t contain them.

In contrast, high levels of fiber that is found only in plant foods have been linked to lower blood cholesterol levels and lower rates of heart disease.

Therefore, a diet rich in plant foods - vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds - can be an effective strategy for promoting overall health and preventing chronic illness.

Animals Don’t Have High Cholesterol

Let's look at examples from nature to have another perspective on the topic. Carnivores and omnivores in the wild don't worry about fat and cholesterol. Lions, wolves, dogs, and bears won’t develop heart disease, no matter how much fat and cholesterol they eat in their lifetime.

Herbivores like deers, zebras, and antelopes that eat plants - food that is natural to them, also don’t have high cholesterol and heart disease. We have never heard of a lion or a deer having blocked arteries and needing a bypass surgery.

Food that is biologically intended for us shouldn’t cause diseases and shorten our lifespan. You can find out more about it here

Here's another study that confirms it.