In Traditional Societies, Where People Don't Eat Processed Foods, Heart Disease Is Rare

Since heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in this country, you would think a cure that could dramatically reduce these deaths would have been discovered by now. However, the most effective remedy remains prevention..

"In traditional societies, where people don't eat processed foods, heart disease is rare," said Dr. Arthur Agatston, cardiologist and author of The South Beach Wake-Up Call. "If you start with a healthy diet in childhood, heart attacks are almost completely preventable."

Some studies have shown that up to 70 percent of heart disease can be averted with the right regimen, according to Dr. Walter Willett, chair of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. However, is diet alone as powerful as drugs? "Oh, no, it's much more powerful," said Dr. Willett during an ABC Good Morning America interview. " Statins, the most effective single medications for reducing heart disease, only cut risk by 25 to 30 percent. In fact, you would need a cabinet full of prescription drugs to bestow all the benefits of a serious heart-healthy meal plan. There's nothing a drug can do for your heart health that foods can't do, too," Dr Willett said.

A truly healthy diet that features a broad range of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes--seems to be the best way to prevent heart disease. Hippocrates understood the concept more than 2,000 years ago: "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food."  

There you have it - food is more powerful than drugs. I have often wondered why we spend billions of dollars to find cures for health diseases if the primary cause is what we eat? I mean wouldn't the money be better spent on educating people to eat healthier to improve their health and prevent disease?  What exactly are the organizations that claim that they are researching to find a cure or treatment searching for? If you know, please tell us all.

Top 10 Reasons to Avoid Processed Foods

I ran across this article on the Top 10 Reasons to Avoid Processed Foods. I thought that you might find it well ........ I'll let you decide. Tell me what you think.

By guest blogger Tyler Graham, coauthor of The Happiness Diet

1: Deciphering food label ingredients leads to unappetizing results. Take the innocuous-sounding castoreum, which is used to enhance the flavor of puddings, candies, and some frozen dairy desserts. You might be surprised to know that it's derived from beavers--beaver anal glands, specifically.
2: Many foods get their red coloring--"carmine"--from ground-up insect shells that can cause severe allergic reactions in some people.
3: The greater the number of cheap cuts of meat ground into a single patty, the greater the risk of contamination with E. coli. A standard fast-food burger contains the trimmings of dozens of cows raised around the globe.
4: According to research from UCLA, it takes only two months to lower levels of brain chemicals responsible for learning and memory (like BDNF) on a steady diet of processed foods.
5: Processed food is only as good as its packaging: In the summer of last year, Kellogg's recalled 28 million boxes of cereal because a compound in the box lining (the company wouldn't say what) was giving off a foul smell and tainting the taste of the boxed food.
6: The same company that makes metal detectors for airports also sells them to food manufacturers, who use the devices to test processed meats for stray wires, metal shards, and hypodermic needles.
7: The ingredients list for Strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups doesn't include...strawberries.
8: Animal feed given to factory-farmed cows contains rendered roadkill and euthanized cats and dogs, as well as plastic pellets as a cheap form of "roughage."
9: There are more than 80 ingredients in one Oscar Mayer Lunchables Breaded Chicken and Mozzarella sandwich.
10: The FDA allows 19 maggots and 74 mites in a three-and-a-half-ounce can of mushrooms.



Tyler Graham is the coauthor of The Happiness Diet. Previously, he served as the health and environment editor of O, The Oprah Magazine, the nutrition editor atPrevention, and the environment editor atBest Life. He recently launched a men's health section at Details magazine.