Heart Healthy Cooking. Are you KIDDING ME??

In yet another example of the backwards approach to health and nutrition the U.S. continues to follow, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recently released a list of atherosclerosis- promoting recipes listed under the paradoxical title "Stay Young at Heart: Cooking the Heart-Healthy Way". Please look it over and take note of the tremendous lack of nutrient density, the emphasis on simple carbohydrates, the frequent use of baking with vegetable oil and/or margarine, the lack of raw foods, and the scarcity of phyto-nutrients. All of these things have been proven beyond doubt by high level research to contribute to heart disease:

• "Sunshine (white) rice" cooked with vegetable oil, orange juice, and lemon juice
  

• "Homestyle biscuits" made from white flour, salt, and sugar

• "Banana-nut bread" made from mashed ripe bananas, low-fat buttermilk, packed brown sugar, margarine, all-purpose white flour, egg and salt.

• "Apricot-orange bread" made from dried apricots, margarine, white sugar, egg, white flour, dry milk powder, salt and orange juice

• "Apple coffee cake" made with peeled apples (please note that >90% of the antioxidants contained in apples are in the peel-thus when the peel is removed, virtually all that remains is antioxidant-poor carbohydrate), one cup of sugar, one cup of dark raisins, one-quarter cup vegetable oil, 1 egg, and two-and-a-half cups of sifted all-purpose white flour

• "Frosted cake" with 2 1/4 cups cake flour, 4 tablespoons margarine, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 4 eggs, low fat cream cheese, and 2 cups sifted confectioners sugar!!

If you want to learn more about the real causes of heart disease, check out these links instead:

• The Real Causes of Heart Disease
• Saturated Fat is Good For You
• Does High Cholesterol Really Cause Heart Disease?

If you are interested in determining where your current level of cardiovascular health is, get some diagnostic testing (which I can order for you if needed) that looks at truly reliable risk factors. Tests like these:

• Comprehensive Cardiovascular Risk Profile
• Carotid Intima-media Thickness Assessment

If you don't care about all that and just want to follow some dietary recommendations to truly prevent heart disease, diabetes and a bunch of other chronic diseases, make sure you read:

• Primal Body-Primal Mind, by Nora Gedgaudas
  
  
• Natural Health & Weight Loss
  by Barry Groves

Keep fighting the good fight!!