Heart Disease

[Di2011]

My bosses partner is diagnosed with heart disease. Tonight she divulged much more than ever before details of her condition etc. Her specialist has just increased her medications to what she indicated were crazy levels. She is overweight but has phsyical employment and eats very little which made me wonder if grains or gluten could be a problem. She had "panic attacks" while we were working tonight and was in what I would call "brainfog" for most of tonight. She avoids breakfast (like I did) and shares a number of other food related avoidance like I have all my life. I asked her if she had been tested for allergies or diet related intolerances and she hasn't. I asked if she had ever been referred to a dietian and she said no, but had been given info about recommended "diet" but when I put to her that diet ie food intake (what) is different to how much (dieting) she appeared to respond so positively that I told her I would do some homework about heart disease and what you eat.

I don't want to press on her my own experiences without something objective so I didn't push too much. She seems so incredibly exasperated with her heart (and weight etc) issues that she would listen/read anything.

I've been doing a bit of googling etc to learn more about the links between diet/gluten and heart disease but hope that forum members might be able to lead me to some web (or alternative) content that is "tailored" to heart disease . Any personal experience would be even better!!

[pricklypear1971]

Oh gawd, heart disease diets are typically packed with whole grains and low fat foods.my FIL has heart disease and you should hear what is "good" for him. Made my toes curl BEFORE gluten-free. Now it makes me want to scream.

The closest gluten-free heart friendly reading I can think if is Dr. Schwarzbein. Google her.

[weluvgators]

William Davis, MD, a cardiologist, wrote the book "Wheat Belly". You may find some good information there - Open Original Shared Link I think that the Gluten Free and Beyond site also has some members with heart and gluten experience, so you may want to pop in over there and ask for some direction - or just explore The Gluten Files there, as it is a great resource as well (I am always looking at neuro stuff there . . . haven't looked for heart stuff yet).

[pricklypear1971]

Oh gawd, heart disease diets are typically packed with whole grains and low fat foods.my FIL has heart disease and you should hear what is "good" for him. Made my toes curl BEFORE gluten-free. Now it makes me want to scream.

The closest gluten-free heart friendly reading I can think if is Dr. Schwarzbein. Google her.

Schwarzbein is an endocrinologist, I believe, so she probably takes a different pov. And it isn't gluten-free- friendly (except from the perspective of carbs, unless she changed things-I read it YEARS ago).

Anyway, she won't be gluten-free focused but probably friendly??? Does that make sense?

[Skylark]

Any healthy diet is fruit and vegetables, lots of them.

For cardiovascular health, she has to control fats. No trans-fat whatsoever. This means NOTHING cooked at high temps with vegetable oil because the vegetable oils convert to trans fat at high heat. No chips of any kind. (The labels lie - they manipulate portion size to get the trans fat to look low.) No french fries, fried chicken, donuts, popcorn, onion rings, etc. If it comes out of a fryer full of vegetable oil it is dangerous for her. Obviously no vegetable shortening or margarine that contains trans fat. If she's cooking at home, she needs to use a tiny amount of saturated fat like ghee or tallow for sauteing. The saturated fat will not convert to trans fat in the frying pan. While you want to limit saturated fat, it is the lesser of two evils.

By the way, trans-fat is toxic for everyone. You really need to think twice before eating fried foods.

I would strongly suggest she read Cordain's paleo diet book to learn about saturated fats and omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. He explains the latest research really well and has a lot of concrete suggestions of foods that give favorable fats for cardiovascular health. She doesn't need to go paleo, but it is gluten-free friendly.

[Di2011]

Thank you all sooo much!!

Plenty of homework for me today!

[Reba32]

I'll second the suggestion for Paleo dieting, and the Wheat Belly book.

A "heart healthy" diet is pretty much the exact opposite of what the current recommendations from the Heart Associations and Diabetes Associations are touting.

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link