The Number One Dietary Factor in Cardiovascular Disease (and Premature Aging): Vegetable Oil

Let’s talk about diets and their relationship to plaque build-up in the arteries and to other conditions related to (premature) aging. You can learn how plaque occurs and the general concepts that relate to that in my previous article.

DIET AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

There is this one dietary factor that single highhandedly is the most significant culprit of degenerative disease that are more common as we age and it speeds up degeneration of cells and organs in the body. It is not only associated with the rise in cardiovascular disease, but also diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and dementia, obesity and even cancer.

For decades we've been warned against the consumption of saturated fats. Eggs, butter and animal products in general are predominantly rich and saturated fat. But this is not the most harmful factor and our desire to remove these from our diets could have had the largest impact leading to increased incidents of cardiovascular disease.

Since the 1950s, a significant decline in the consumption of saturated fat had occurred, during the same period of time, cardiovascular disease became the most common cause of death in the Western world.

 In more recent times there has been a lot of attention on sugar and carbohydrates and we've been told, to limit our carbohydrate and sugar intake because that can potentially be harmful to our health. Since the mid-1990s carbohydrate and sugar intake have also declined but incidents of obesity and cardiovascular disease have not declined. See the graphic on US carbohydrate intake vs obesity prevalence (the trend in sugar consumption has been similar to the one of overall carbohydrate consumption). 

In the early 1900s, the death rate from cardiovascular disease relative to what it is today was very low. At the time cardiovascular disease was the fifth leading cause of death), not the first one as it is now), and it was largely due to infections that affected the heart, not so much due to blockages in the arteries that lead to a heart attack or a stroke.

It was not until the 1950s that cardiovascular disease became the leading cause of death in the Western world.

The only dietary factor whose consumption pattern resembles the increased rate of cardiovascular disease and other chronic and degenerative disease related to aging, is polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The adjoining graph shows a steady rise in PUFA consumption Between 1909 to 2005.

Clearly, the relationship between the consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and cardiovascular disease is the most significant out of all the major food groups; carbohydrates, fats, proteins.

The richest source of polyunsaturated fatty acids is vegetable oil. Since about the 1920s,30s and throughout the 20th century, there's been a steady rise in the consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids as western society moved away from cooking with butter and lard, or even coconut oil in warm regions.

The term vegetable oil is a bit misleading as it actually assigned to mean the the oil extracted mostly from grains and seeds. Things like canola, corn sunflower seed and soybean oil.

Avoiding vegetable oil is an important strategy in the prevention of common chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and even cancer.

ADOPTING A HEART HEALTHY DIET

The first and perhaps the most important dietary intervention one can implement to restore cardiovascular and over-all well-being, is to limit the consumption of polyunsaturated fats and particularly vegetable oil.