The PURE path to heart disease prevention

On what planet is a diet rich in fruits, veggies, nuts, legumes, fish, dairy, and unprocessed red meat considered controversial?

It boggles my mind that we’re somehow still debating these facts today — despite a whole mountain of evidence to support the wisdom of this way of eating. And yet, when you read mainstream medicine’s reaction to the findings of the PURE study, it’s easy to see how far behind the “experts” are lagging when it comes to nutritional knowledge.

Not familiar with PURE? Allow me to take a moment to get you up to speed…

The 7 dietary keys to superior heart health

The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study looked at links between diet, death risk, and other health outcomes in hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. The initial results made a real splash at the 2017 meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.

Why? For one thing, the study found a link between higher carb consumption and higher risk of death. It also showed that the benefits of fruits and veggies maxed out at around four servings a day.

But here’s the real jaw-dropper: PURE also linked a higher intake of fat — including the much-maligned saturated kind — with lower mortality. And, well… you can imagine how the cardiology community handled that revelation.

Which brings me to today’s news. Researchers identified seven foods that PURE research linked with lower death risk: Fruits, veggies, nuts, legumes, fish, dairy, and unprocessed red meat.

They assigned each food a score from one to five, based on the abundance of each food in the diet. Ultimately, PURE diet scores ranged from a minimum of 7 (among subjects who ate the fewest of these key foods) to a maximum of 35 (among subjects who ate the most).

And wouldn’t you know? Results showed that subjects with the highest PURE diet scores also enjoyed the lowest rates of both mortality and cardiovascular events. So, the “controversy” continues.

The “shocking” truth about smart nutrition

If you’ve been reading Reality Health Check for a while, you might be wondering why this is such shocking news to mainstream medicine.

Well I’ll tell you: It’s shocking because, yet again, the clinical evidence supports my A-List approach to eating. And the powers that be hate that. They’ve already got their story — the one that tells you to kick meat and cheese to the curb in favor of “plant foods” — and they’re sticking to it.

Look, eating plenty of vegetables (and even some fruits) is always a good idea. But the fact is, dairy and red meat deliver a lot of vital nutrients too. Ones that you’re simply not going to get from a bowl of salad.

Good nutrition isn’t a zero sum game. And accordingly, these researchers suggest three servings of dairy and one-and-a-half servings of red meat per day. Hardly an outrageous amount.

And yet, they were ridiculed. Just read the idiotic hair-splitting of Alice Lichtenstein, Ph.D., professor of nutrition science at Tufts University:

“I would like to see some distinction between lean and fatty meat, full fat and reduced fat dairy, and refined and non-refined carbohydrate. In addition, the characteristics of the populations on which this score is based are also quite different to those of the U.S., and so I’m not sure how applicable it would be to the U.S. population.”

If you ask me, those few sentences sum up in a nutshell all that is wrong with modern medicine.

There’s attention to detail… and then there’s willful ignorance. Why do the so-called “experts” in this country have it in for healthy eating?

Oh wait — that’s right. Because Big Food doesn’t support this type of diet. And therefore, it’s the wrong way to eat. How could I have forgotten that?

The cardiology community certainly hasn’t. In fact, audience polls showed that, even after being presented with PURE’s findings, most people at this conference would still recommend against eating saturated fat.

If only they showed the same skepticism toward Big Pharma’s research…

P.S. Fortunately, I’ve already looked at the science, and I’ve written an entire book based off my findings. It’s called The A-List Diet. In it, I break down every dietary myth, and give you the tools to start eating right — and enjoying it. With over 100 recipes, you’ll never have to ask yourself “What am I making for dinner tonight?”

And it’s now available in paperback!

Source:

medscape.com/viewarticle/901331