Heart-Healthy Food Recommendations for Weight Loss, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Illness Optimization
Grain Based Foods
In the 1930s the food industry figured out how to bleach whole grain flour. By chemical treatment the healthful parts of the grain: fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins were removed. White flour and bread were created, which are incredibly unhealthy. To give it the false impression of being healthy, the food industry then “fortifies” white flower with 4 vitamins and iron. Cardiovascular disease has been on a rise since the 1930s, and remains the number one cause of human deaths in the developed world.
Why is bread atherogenic and bad for your health? Grains, rice, pastries, cereal pack a tremendous amount of carbohydrates. If consumed in small quantities carbohydrates are not a big deal, but when one sees the amount of carbohydrates consumed by good people in the community of Glendale, or across the world, the adverse health effects are observed: hyper-triglyceridemia, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke, heart attack and cancer risk.
We have a saying, “If the grain is white, don’t bite.”
Whole wheat grains are certainly better than white grain products, but they still pack lots of carbohydrates.
In the recent past the food industry has made a bold move that is in the interest of healthy hearts, almost certainly driven by increasing demand for such food.
Keto breads are made with modified wheat flour, whereby the majority of the carbohydrates are now fiber. This helps lower the calorie count of the product, while adding fiber. This dramatically reduces the glycemic index of the bread.
With keto bread, the wheat is often bio-engineered. If you only would like natural breads, then sprouted breads are a healthy option, but they do have significant carbohydrates.
Fiber has dozens of health benefits. Water soluble fiber is better than water insoluble fiber.
Consuming 30 grams of fiber per day, helps lower cholesterol, risk of heart disease, stroke, colon, breast cancer, and diabetes.
Please enjoy the below listed products in moderation:
Carbonaut
British Columbia, Canada
Aldi Foods
Batavia, IL
Aldi Foods
Batavia, IL
La Tortilla Factory
Santa Rosa, CA
Aldi Foods
Batavia, IL
Rice
Rice is a cereal grain that was domesticated around 10,000 years ago. White rice is not naturally occurring, and is a genetic variant of wild rice that was cultivated by farming.
The problem with rice is its carbohydrate content. Multiple studies link excess white rice consumption to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, hyper-triglyceridemia. When our body gets such a large load of carbohydrates that go above and beyond the bodies energy needs, the excess carbohydrates undergoes lipogenesis, and are converted to triglycerides, which deposit in our body causing weight gain. These triglycerides also build in our vessels, contribute to atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke, and several other illnesses. Additionally, white rice is bad because it causes constipation, as it lack fiber.
Is it a surprise that countries that consume the most amount of rice have the highest incidence of diabetes? Having diabetes predisposes an individual to so many other illnesses, stroke, heart attack, kidney disease, eye and peripheral nerve disorders.
Brown rice and wild rice are much healthier than white rice and may be consumed in moderation; however, they too pack excess carbohydrates.
If you want the heart healthiest rice alternative, consider cauliflower rice, which packs nearly 10 times ( an order of magnitude) fewer carbohydrates, is packed with the super nutrients and anti oxidants of vegetables, check out the pictures just below:
Trader Joe’s
Monrovia CA
Deserts
Historically desert is one of the unhealthiest things one can consume. Not only is desert often made with white flour, but the number one ingredient added is sugar, giving a desert what a cardiologist would say a “toxic level of carbohydrates.” Not only are such high levels of carbohydrates going to go above and beyond the bodies energy needs, they overwhelm our pancreas, and the body is not going to have anything good to do with the excess calories, and will initiate lipogenesis, creating triglycerides that will increase your cholesterol, contribute to weight gain, atherosclerosis, heart and vascular disease, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and the hosts of complicating medical processes that follow.
Additionally butter is a common ingredient in deserts. Butter is pure cholesterol and triglycerides, the unhealthiest product that mankind has made from milk. Margarine is not healthful either. Plant based butter alternatives, coconut and palm oil are also very unhealthy due to excess saturated fat content. Sometimes the food industry modifies other oils to make them more solid at room temperature, by “shortening,” or “hydrogenation” of oils, this again are not healthy, and if you see these words in the ingredients label of your food, you should avoid that food.
Keep in mind what is conveient for the food industry, is not what is healthy for you. The food industry wants solid lard (butter, margarine, coconut oil, palm oil, shortened or hydrogenated oil), so they may produce a solid desert or pastry so that it may be mass produced and shipped all across the world for quick profits. Oils that are liquid at room temperature are much healthier.
Using a sugar alternative is a good way to cut carbohydrate content. One could write a textbook about all of the sugar alternatives out there, their risks and benefits. Suffice it to say, we personally use and promote sugar alcohols, which are naturally occurring in berries and may be used in the high temperatures of your oven for baking: erythrinol, which almost has no calories, and xylitol, which has about 40% of the calories of sugar. Xylitol is reported to have dental benefits, including promoting bacteria that do not cause cavities. Xylitol toothpaste and mouthwash and or mints, gum, have similar health benefits. Sugar alcohol is a sugar with an alcohol (OH) molecule attached, which changes its biochemical properties dramatically. Sugar alcohol is not plain alcohol, and has no intoxicating properties.
Below are healthier desert recommendations that are made with wheat flour alternatives, including almond flour, while keeping saturated fat content at an acceptable level, and often sweetened with sugar alcohols.
These are the rare ways to enjoy a healthy chocolate, vanilla or other flavored deserts, with cardiologist approval.
GOOD TO GO Snacks
Riverside Natural Foods Ltd
Ontario, Canada
Smart & Final
Commerce, CA
Smart & Final
Commerce, CA
KIND Snacks
New York, NY
Pasta / Noodles
Pasta / Noodles are grain based and has the packs too many carbohydrates, in unhealthful, contributes to diabetes, hypertension, hyper-triglyceridemia, obesity, cardiovascular disease. Fortunately now there are low carbohydrate options or alternatives. Modified wheat may be used as in Carbe Diem below (Minneapolis, MN) whereby the carbohydrates have been converted to fiber. Alternatively konjac root (also known as elephant yam root) may be used as the principal ingredient in noodles, which is very high in fiber, free of carbohydrates and has all of the health benefits of consuming fiber (Skinny Pasta, Suffield, CT, and Liviva, Richmond Hill, ON) . Finally, zucchini noodles, zoodles, or raw zucchini spirals, are an exceptionally healthy pasta alternative and go very well with pesto sauce (365, Austin, TX).
Ice cream is very atherogenic, accelerates heart disease, is bad for our arteries and health, packs too many calories, contributes to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardio vascular illness, stroke and heart attack. Not only is ice cream packed with processed carbohydrates that get absorbed quickly and overwhelm our pancreas, it also packs a heavy dose of cream and milk, which are high in saturated fat, and cholesterol. Additionally ice cream lacks fiber.
Keto ice cream, including those made with coconut oil, are often not healthy either because a single bar may pack over 10 grams of saturated fat, which is half of our daily allowance. Don’t be fooled by the coconut industry’s claim that coconut oil is healthy; it is incredibly high in saturated fat, and similar to butter. We find the best part of the coconut is the husk, which makes a good mulch or growing medium for our plants.
All of the above changed when we found Nicks ice cream products which are low in carbohydrates, have acceptable levels of saturated fat, and have a good amount of fiber. Good job Nick, and I hope that other ice cream manufacturers may work on producing healthier options.
Nick’s
Stockholm, Sweden
Cereal, like bread, is made of grains and is excessively high in carbohydrates. Fortunately now, there is a healthier option:
WK Kellogg
Battle Creek, MI
Sugar alcohols are just like sugar, but they have an extra alcohol (OH) component attached to the molecule of sugar. Don’t confuse sugar alcohols with the alcohol ethanol, they are different, and have no mind altering effects. Sugar alcohols are naturally occurring and are abundant in berries, which are one of the lower carbohydrate fruits one may consume, and are packed with health benefits. Sugar alcohols have only a fraction of the calories of sugar. Xylitol is observed to have cavity preventing dental benefits and is being used increasingly in toothpaste, mouthwash, and mints. Sugar alcohols may be used in baking and do not break apart in the high temperature of the oven. Consuming sugar alcohols excessively may cause bloating and diarrhea. While there are many sugar alcohols, here are two common options that may help one in preventing weight gain, diabetes, heart and vascular illness. Xylitol has about half the calories of sugar, erythrinol has less than one tenth the calories of sugar.
We receive no compensation on promoting any specific food or brand. The recommendations found on this website are by no means comprehensive, and there are many good alternatives out there. These are cardiologist recommended foods to help lower the incidence of leading causes of illness, atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, obesity.