Inflammation is a major risk for heart disease.

Recent scientific studies are pointing to refined carbohydrates as one of the bad guys in the development of cardiovascular disease. Dietary fat, and saturated fat in particular, had been fingered as the ring leader of heart disease culprits since the 1950s.

Recent science (see references below) contradicts this long held hypothesis. Ancel Keys fabricated the lipid hypothesis controversy, which was not based on sound science: "Subsequent and independent analysis of the data that were available to Keys shows that he "cherry picked" only those countries with numbers that supported his hypothesis and omitted a significant amount of data that showed there was actually no correlation between dietary fat, cholesterol, and arteriosclerosis. But this information has been largely ignored." From Smart Heart Living website. Read more.

The new model for chief culprit in causing heart disease is inflammation. See 'Growing proof inflammation is a major risk factor for heart disease' published by The Cleveland Clinic. Chief contributors to inflammation are stress, smoking, and over consumption of processed carbohydrates. Does this fly in the face of long held conventional wisdom on the causes of heart disease? Yes. Ancel Keys single, faulty study on heart disease and saturated fat consumption has been repeated so often that it's part of the cultural zeitgeist.

But repeating what has basically been refuted as a lie does not make it any less a lie. Most of the public, the government, the medical world, and the media haven't caught up to the recent science on heart disease and its causes. Simply put, the longer our heads are in the sand on the relationship between excess carbohydrates and heart disease, the longer heart disease will remain the number one killer in the US.

Dr. Michael Eades said recently: "These results show what we’ve all known for a long time.  As long as one keeps the carbs under control, it doesn’t seem to matter much how much saturated fat is consumed.  It all gets dealt with by the body in harmless ways.  I guess that’s how I eat all that steak and keep my lipids normal." Read more.

Related diseases including metabolic syndrome, obesity, atherogenic diseases, and diabetes have been shown to respond positively to low carbohydrate diets as well. Compared to test subjects on a low fat diet, those on a low carbohydrate diet fared better in many health markers. While science is proving a low carbohydrate diet to be more beneficial than a low fat diet in many areas, the trickle down of current science to the rest of us is like molasses dripping through a gravel leach field. Bottom line, current science points to the effectiveness of low carbohydrate diets in improving many aspects of health including the management of heart disease.

Dr. Peter Libby explores new evidence on the connection of inflammation to heart attack. Series: "Inflammation as Cause and Consequence of Disease"

References:

1. Volek JS, et al. Effects of dietary carbohydrate restriction vs low-fat diet on flow-mediated dilation. Metabolism. 2009 Jul 24th.

These findings show that a 12-week low-carbohydrate diet improves postprandial vascular function more than a LFD in individuals with atherogenic dyslipidemia.

2. Lavi T, et al. The Acute Effect of Various Glycemic Index Dietary Carbohydrates on Endothelial Function in Nondiabetic Overweight and Obese Subjects J Am Coll Cardiol 2009

Conclusions: High- compared with low-glycemic carbohydrate consumption significantly suppresses FMD in nondiabetic overweight and obese volunteers, suggesting a mechanism whereby high-glycemic meals may enhance cardiovascular risk.

3. Lipids. 2009 Apr;44(4):297-309. Epub 2008 Dec 12. Carbohydrate restriction has a more favorable impact on the metabolic syndrome than a low fat diet. Volek JS, Phinney SD, Forsythe CE, Quann EE, Wood RJ, Puglisi MJ, Kraemer WJ, Bibus DM, Fernandez ML, Feinman RD.

4. Carbohydrate restriction improves the features of Metabolic Syndrome. Metabolic Syndrome may be defined by the response to carbohydrate restriction Jeff S Volek and Richard D Feinman Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1110 USA Department of Biochemistry, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY 11203 USA Nutrition & Metabolism 2005, 2:31doi:10.1186/1743-7075-2-31