I don’t know about you, but the amount of information about health that’s in the news, on the television and radio, on the internet and more is mind boggling. Things I learned in school about healthy eating are now laughed at. Do you remember the old low-fat craze in the 1980s? Now the experts say it’s responsible for the obesity epidemic. Do you remember the Atkins diet? I do. My boss was on that one for the longest time. I tried it and felt so crappy I had to stop. I’ve tried just about every diet out there from raw foods to Atkins. I’m still fat.
Well, let’s look at what a real expert has to say on the subject. I stumbled across this article today by an eminent cardiologist. This is a guy who has performed over 5,000 cardiac operations and has peered at countless arteries and blood vessels in his career. He knows what he’s talking about. And do you know what he says?
In a nutshell…
- Eat whole foods.
- Eat an abundant of colorful fruits and vegetables.
- Don’t be afraid to eat meat.
- For oils and fats, use olive oil and grass-fed butter (cows raised on grass, whose milk has been made into butter)
- Avoid processed foods.
- Sugar and white flour, plus corn, soy and other vegetable oils (except olive oil) are inflammatory and contribute to heart disease.
I’m adding to his list avoid artificial sweeteners, which I consider poison; avoid alcohol and tobacco.
When you combine my love of gardening and my move to the countryside of Virginia, it’s now fairly easy to eat healthfully. Yet I still reach for sweets and processed foods as comfort foods. I think that changing your diet is probably the hardest thing to do. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone about diet? It can get more heated than a conversation about religion, politics or sex!
In all seriousness, we (and I’m assuming you’re a gardener too) as gardeners already have at our fingertips the secret to healthy living. Most of us are growing, or trying to grow, that “abundance of colorful fruits and vegetables” mentioned by this physician and so many other noted health experts over the years. Clearly there’s no drawback to doing so, and nearly every dietary system in the world embraces vegetables and fruits.
So let’s get to work, gardeners of America. Spade up that earth. Turn over the compost pile. It’s good exercise, and if you grow those colorful fruits and vegetables, and then EAT them…you’re doing your arteries some good!
See the original article: World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out on What Really Causes Heart Disease
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
