Many people believe they understand nutrition because they eat. This is akin believing you understand cars because you drive one, and many people do actually think this way. However, the discrepancy between common nutritional knowledge and the observations from scientific studies suggests that the general public have been mislead or are misinformed. Here are five misconceptions about cardiovascular disease to illustrate the point.
1. Dietary Cholesterol Causes Atherosclerosis
The widely held belief that cholesterol is a cause of cardiovascular disease because it causes atherosclerosis is so fundamentally flawed, that one might as well believe that the magic cholesterol fairy is the cause of cardiovascular disease. The chain of evidence linking dietary cholesterol to atherosclerosis is absent, and the chain of evidence linking atherosclerosis to cardiovascular disease is controversial. However, many people still believe this to be a ‘fact’.
2. Saturated Fat Is A Cause Of Cardiovascular Disease
If the evidence linking cholesterol to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease is weak, the evidence linking saturated fat to cardiovascular disease is even weaker. Saturated fat is not even a single substance, but a number of different compounds that all have different absorption, metabolism and excretion routes. The sweeping statement that saturated fat is a cause of cardiovascular disease doesn’t even therefore make any nutritional sense.
3. Eggs Cause Cardiovascular Disease
Even the mainstream medical community and their paid agents now acknowledge that eggs do not cause cardiovascular disease. The assumption that they did was based on zero evidence, just supposition, propaganda and rumour. However, many people widely believe that they should limit their egg intake to avoid cardiovascular disease. In the process, these individuals are avoiding a brilliant source of micronutrients and a great source of protein and fat.
4. Exercise Prevents Cardiovascular Disease
Many people exercise under the misguided belief that it prevents cardiovascular disease. However, scientific evidence simply does not support this contention. In fact, there is good evidence that intense physical activity, over decades, eventually takes a toll on the body through increased stress leading to poor health in later life. This can include joint problems, stiff inflexible muscles and enlarged chambers of the heart following heart muscle hypertrophy.
5. Low Fat Diets Prevent Cardiovascular Disease
The idea that low fat diets prevent cardiovascular disease is not entirely incorrect. However, for them to work they must be prudent diets which contain only whole grains, whole foods and naturally prepared nutritious dishes. In this respect they resemble traditional diets. However, most people think low carbohydrate means eating low fat processed foods and weight watchers junk that is actually probably a contributory factor in causing cardiovascular disease.
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