Not All Diets Pass Heart Healthy Test

Guess which diet got the best ranking?

According to this report by WebMD, it’s the Mediterranean Diet.

Study Shows Mediterranean Diet Lowers Heart Disease Risk; Western Diet Gets Poor Marks

Researchers evaluated more than 50 years of research on diet and heart disease and found those that follow a Mediterranean pattern with lots of fruits, vegetables, and fish have “strong evidence” of lowering the risk of heart disease.
In contrast, eating a Western-style diet, foods high in trans-fatty acids, or foods with a high glycemic index were shown to raise the risk of heart disease.

[WC: At the point, the author of the article said something odd]

Foods with a high glycemic index cause blood sugar levels to spike and include simple or refined carbohydrates like white bread, pasta, and rice.

I would like to point out that the French each white bread baguettes twice per day, every day. The Italians not only eat bread every day, but they also eat pasta every day. The quintesentially thin Japanese eat white rice every day. Those carbs, apparently, are not the problem after all.

It’s interesting that they tout the Mediterranean diet without adhering to it!!

Yes, it is the case that our fat and sugar (not to mention salt) overconsumption is largely due to the hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup found in processed food products. But the Mediterranean diet does not include these, only the Western-style diets.

So, instead of saying that pasta and bread is bad, perhaps it is more rigorous and true to say that processed food products carry the ingredients that can lead to chronic disease symptoms.