Inflammation Causes Heart Disease, Experts Say

Today the number of Americans dying of heart disease, the number one cause of death, is higher than health experts predicted it would be.  4 out of 10 Americans suffer from a heart-related health problem, and that number is expected to get even worse.  In addition to the lives lost, the cost of treating heart disease is expected to reach one trillion dollars a year within the next 15 years. 

A growing number of doctors believe the root cause of heart disease is inflammation in our bodies, brought on by eating too much sugar and bread.  Cardiologist Stephen Sinatra is on of those physicians who blame an inflammatory diet on the skyrocketing rates of deadly heart disease.  

Sinatra says to reduce inflammation, stay away from sugar and processed grains such as enriched flour, corn and rice found in bread, bagels, pasta, pizza dough, tortillas, muffins and cereal.  He says as far as our health is concerned, these refined grains are very similar to sugar because our body responds to them in the same way.

"Sugar is your foe. It's the villan. Sugar is the enemy," he says.

There are many types of sugar.  Many of them end with "-ose." Sinatra says one of the worst is high fructose corn syrup, which food manufacturers began adding to soda and thousands of other foods and drinks in the past few decades, corresponding with the dramatic rise in heart disease, as well as obesity and diabetes. 

Nutritionist J.J. Virgin points out that was also the same time the low-fat craze kicked-in.  That caused millions of Americans to replace fat with bread and sugar. 

"When we started to pull the fat out of products, we either add, or are left with, sugar," she explained, "If you look at a lot of the dairy products, especially like cream cheese, we'll go to the light cream cheeses, and they actually added sugar in."

In fact, some fat-free salad dressings are one-third sugar!  Doctors advise checking nutrition facts labels on products, and only choose foods with no more than 2 grams of sugar per serving. 

When Dallas resident John Speanburg started following his doctor's recommendation to cut-back on sugar, Speanburg was surprised to discover many of the foods he thought were healthy actually containd too much sugar.

"I love yogurt," he said, "But when you start realizing there's 9 grams of sugar in yogurt, I cut out yogurt."

When it comes to fruit, health experts say stick to the ones that are unprocessed, fresh or frozen, preferably berries, because they are lowest in sugar.  However, stay away from processed fruit products like juices, jellies and snacks.  They often contain super-concentrated natural sugar, fructose, accompanied by the misleading, "no sugar added" claim on the package.

"There are easy ways to say 'no sugar added' and still put it in there.," she explained, "Apple juice concentrate's the worst thing you can possibly have. Apple juice concentrate's got more fructose than high fructose corn syrup does."

So to prevent heart disease, America's number one killer that's still on the rise, doctors say reduce inflammation by avoiding processed foods and drinks, and instead, embracing foods in their natural state, also known as "whole" foods.  Especially load-up on a wide variety of colorful vegetables.  Also choose healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, avocados and raw nuts.  When it comes to beverages, health experts say just drink plain water, unsweetened coffee or unsweetened tea.