The TRUTH About Veggies and Your Heart (Surprising)

There’s a lot of dietary advice floating around out there.

Most of it is total bunk.

Even what you’ll hear from most doctors and popular so-called health organizations is fake science based on fake news.

Here’s an example of a total misleading headline—and what the science REALLY says.

Spin.

That’s the technique that marketing departments and (unfortunately) many journalists put on information to make you see something they way THEY want you to see it.

Take this recent study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, for example.

Headlines covering this study read something like, “Diets Rich in Fruit and Vegetables Improve Heart Health.”

That may be true. Fruit and vegetables are an excellent part of any healthy diet.

But, based on the study, the headline could also have read, “Diets High in Fish and Poultry Benefit Heart Health,” or “Diets Loaded with Nuts and Seeds are Heart-Healthy,” or “Eating Whole Foods Better for Heart Health Than Processed Foods.”

Because what the study actually found was that following the DASH diet was better for your heart than following a typical Western Diet.

DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and it incorporates foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains, poultry, fish, and beans.

Compare that to the typical Western diet, which is heavy in fatty, sugary, salty, and heavily processed foods.

The researchers found that people who followed the DASH diet had better levels of two biomarkers: troponin (which helps regulate heart muscle contractions) and pro—B-type natriuretic peptide (high levels of which can indicate heart failure).

Better markers indicate better heart health.

I don’t doubt that the people following the DASH diet had better heart health than those following the typical Western diet.

But the fruit and vegetables aren’t the ONLY reason for the better heart health. It’s eating whole foods as a whole that makes the biggest difference in your overall health.

And if I had to pick two of the BEST foods for your heart from the diet, I’d have to go with fatty fish and olive oil.

I have two points here.

One is that it’s important to read beyond a simple headline.

The other is that eating REAL food, as opposed to FAKE processed food, is good for every aspect of your health—your heart included.

And if you want to pile on the fruit and veggies, be my guest.