This recent
Six Servings post from our nice friends at the Wheat Lobby prompted me to make this counterpost.
Their post begins with:
According to the American Heart Association, the best way to keep your heart in peak form is by eating well and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Whole grains are a cornerstone of a heart-healthy diet and consuming them has been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease by keeping blood pressure, cholesterol - and even weight - in check. Because of these benefits, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends making at least half your grains whole grains. By following this simple recommendation, you will be well on your way to giving your heart a little more love.I'd like to contribute my thoughts to this grain-based love fest.
Now, when we're talking about heart disease, we're talking about a topic I know something about. Having practiced cardiology essentially 7 days a week, 50 weeks a year for the last 23 years, having been involved in the care of tens of thousands of people with a wide variety of heart conditions, having performed 5000 heart catheterizations, thousands of coronary angioplasties, directional/rotational/translumiminal-extraction/excimer laser angioplasties, stent implantations, intracoronary ultrasounds, treated thousands of heart attacks and cardiac arrests, performed tens of thousands of stress tests in various forms, echocardiograms, and participated in research in heart disease, I think about heart disease, I talk about heart disease, I write about heart disease . . . so, let's talk about heart disease, specifically coronary heart disease and coronary atherosclerosis, the conditions that lead to heart attack and the "need" for procedures like heart catheterizations, angioplasty, stent implantation, and bypass surgery.
As followers of the Wheat Belly discussion already know, data like the Physicians Health Study and the Nurses Health Study and the 12 other studies often cited that "prove" that whole grains are heart healthy actually
do no such thing. They only demonstrate that, if white processed flour products are replaced with whole grains, there are indeed health benefits, including a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease. But they do
not demonstrate that whole grains improve health over
no grains. So let's ask: What happens when non-wheat/grain consuming people consume "healthy whole grains" on factors relevant to heart health:
Comment: For more information on this topic and why veggies might not be the solution, check our forum discussions Life Without Bread and Ketogenic Diet.