We think recent heart-health headlines have gotten things backward, upside-down and sideways.
Exhibit A: British scientists just started a big study of the bright-red “polypill,” a combination drug for heart disease. Yes, some people (especially in developing countries) will benefit from this low-priced, multi-tasking medicine. But most of us should start with the poly-diet, not the polypill.
It takes a winning combination of foods to do right by your ticker. We’re talking about “food synergy.” In a University of Toronto study, women and men with high cholesterol who munched a mixed bag of proven cholesterol-fighters — including nuts, soy, fruits and vegetables — saw their lousy LDL cholesterol free-fall a whopping 29 percent in just one month. That’s on par with the group who took a cholesterol-lowering statin pill: The drug-takers’ LDL sank just 1 percent more than the food-eaters’.
That leads us to Exhibit B: All those studies that crop up, week after week, touting a single food as the solution for one health problem or another. Recently, it was nuts for blood pressure. We’re nuts for nuts. But no single food — not even steel-cut oatmeal (another of our faves) or grapefruit or even chocolate chip cookies (yup, someone studied ’em) — is a magic bullet that can lower bad-guy LDL and raise heart-helping HDL by itself. Like we said, you need a combination. Here’s how to make this work for you:
Body-check the bad guys. The poly-diet works best when it slams the Five Food Felons right off your plate: 1. Saturated fat, the kind found in meat, poultry skin, full-fat dairy foods, and palm and coconut oils; 2. Trans fats, the ugly stuff still pumped into many snack foods and commercial desserts; 3. Simple sugars; 4. Added sugars in general, including all added syrups; 5. Any grain that’s not a whole grain. These five bad guys attack your heart and arteries the way a Stanley Cup playoff team bombards the opposing goalie before the buzzer. It ain’t pretty.
Start with fruits and veggies. You really can’t get enough, so challenge yourself to eat an extra helping of each every day this week. Then don’t stop. Produce is loaded with artery-protecting phytochemicals. Also, the soluble fiber in some fruits and veggies (pears, apples, eggplant, okra) escorts cholesterol out of your body via your digestive system. Low-cal, fat-free produce is also the natural ticket to a leaner physique.
Keep up the good fats. Don’t go no-fat, even if you have high cholesterol. Go for the good fats found in avocados, nuts, olives and seeds. These unsaturated fats are your heart’s buddies, reducing lousy LDL while boosting heart-healthy HDL. Sprinkle walnuts on your dinner salad, use avocado instead of mayo on your sandwich, munch a small handful of walnuts or seeds instead of chips. And treat yourself to salmon or trout twice a week (or take 3 grams of fish oil or 900 milligrams of DHA from algae capsules daily) to supply your heart with a steady stream of rhythm-regulating omega-3 fatty acids, too.
Make all your grains whole. Whole-wheat bread, brown rice, barley, 100 percent (make sure you see the “100 percent”) whole-wheat couscous and pasta … there are lots of ways to get your whole grains without getting bored. These goodies help your heart by whittling nasty abdominal fat and lowering levels of inflammation.
Eat the right eggs. A regular large egg packs 2 grams of saturated fat — meaning a two-egg omelet puts you close to your limit for the meal. But an egg a day is OK for most people. And an omega-3-enhanced egg is even better. It has 1.5 grams of saturated fat and gives you a good-fat boost. Even better: Use egg whites. They’re packed with protein and have no fat or cholesterol.
Add plant sterols and stanols. These cool compounds, found in small amounts in produce and whole grains, block absorption of some of the cholesterol you eat. You’ll get a bigger dose from a plant-sterol-enhanced bread spread, salad dressing or yogurt. The important thing is to eat your chosen sterol every day for best results.
Swap in soy. Crumbled tofu instead of hamburger in your lasagna (no one will notice, promise!), soy sausage instead of pork links, a glass of soy milk instead of a shake. When soy is a substitute for high-fat foods, it’s a good heart friend because it replaces LDL-raising sat fat with good fats, fiber and protein.
Most of all, find food combinations of the good guys you love to eat, because food should be as fun as making yourself younger is.
The YOU Docs, Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, are authors of “YOU: On a Diet.” To submit questions, visit realage.com.
