If you’re over age 65, you’re more likely to die from heart disease than any other cause.
Why, though?
Is it due to stress? Over or under exercising? Eating too much fat, cholesterol, and junk food? A bit of each or something else altogether?
Scientists have been searching for answers to those questions for a long time now, but if there’s one culprit that has been fingered more than any other, it’s diet. For a couple decades now, we’ve been told by experts everywhere that saturated fat, cholesterol, and often just dietary fat in general increases our your risk of heart disease, full stop.
This idea has been further bolstered by the promotion of the food pyramid, which tells us to get most of our calories from whole grains like pasta, cereal, and bread, and as few calories as possible from added fats like oils, butter, lard, and others.
Is it really that simple, though? Is reducing our dietary fat intake really the best way to avoid heart disease?
Frankly, while I’ve read enough to know there are some major holes in the “less fat = less heart disease” hypothesis, I’m not an expert on the topic, so I invited my buddy Dr. Spencer Nadolsky on the show to break it down.
I caught him at a good time, too, because he’s currently studying for certification on this very topic and shares some great insights on the most current scientific understanding of how our diets actually affect our tickers.
So, if that wets your whistle, click the player below to listen in.
Timestamps
6:16 – How was the food pyramid created?
8:30 – What are the different types of fats and how do they affect your cholesterol?
10:25 – Does eating cholesterol raise your cholesterol?
14:09 – If you usually eat no cholesterol and start eating cholesterol, will you have a jump in your blood cholesterol? Does that normalize over time?
15:49 – What’s the purpose of having two different types of lipoproteins?
17:46 – What does endogenous and exogenous mean?
18:58 – What is familial hypercholesterolemia?
21:03 – What does the research say about the Mediterranean diet?
23:00 – What kind of effect does the stearic acid in chocolate have on LDL?
25:46 – What foods should people limit their intake of?
27:42 – Have you seen doctors go to the dark side?
36:26 – At what number is our LDL cholesterol a risk of heart disease?
39:25 – How much red meat should we have?
43:07 – Any more advice you had on saturated fat?
43:42 – How many servings of butter should we have per day?
51:11 – Can eating poorly from a young age have irreversible damage to your body?
What did you think of this episode? Have anything else to share? Let me know in the comments below!
Legion Featured Author
Mike Matthews
Mike Matthews is the founder of Legion as well as the author of several award-winning fitness books, including Bigger Leaner Stronger, Muscle for Life, and The Shredded Chef.
His simple and science-based approach to building muscle, losing fat, and getting healthy has sold over a million books and helped thousands of people build their best bodies ever, and his work has been featured in many popular outlets including Esquire, Men’s Health, Elle, Women’s Health, Muscle & Strength, and more, as well as on FOX and ABC.
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Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you live in the UK or Canada, your order ships free when it’s over $99.
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We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you’re outside the USA, your order ships free when it’s over $199.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
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Some popular pre-workouts are all-natural. Some contain the right mix of high-quality ingredients. Some provide clinically effective doses. But only Pulse checks each of these boxes.
Pulse doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients''—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. Pulse contains no artificial or synthetic substances of any kind.
Every serving of Pulse contains 15.1 grams of active ingredients that have been shown to be safe and effective in peer-reviewed scientific research.
Every active ingredient in Pulse is backed by published scientific studies that show benefits in healthy humans.
Pulse contains no harsh stimulants that wind you up and burn you out. Instead, it contains a 1:1 ratio of caffeine and L-theanine, which produces a smooth energy rush and comfortable comedown.
We carefully examined 508 pages of scientific research to find out exactly what should and shouldn’t be in a pre-workout supplement.
Every bottle of Pulse is guaranteed to provide exactly what the label claims and nothing else—no heavy metals, microbes, allergens, or other contaminants.
While these types of chemicals may not be as dangerous as some people claim, studies suggest that regular consumption of them may indeed be harmful to our health. And that’s why we don’t put any of them into our products.
Before you buy a sports supplement, you should know that it's clean, safe, and transparent. And that's exactly what Labdoor's third-party testing and certification means.
It's hard to know for sure, but this probably makes Pulse the most-popular all-natural pre-workout supplement in the world.
If you don’t absolutely love this product, just let us know, and we’ll give you a full refund on the spot. No forms or return necessary.
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Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab by Labdoor™, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
This product doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients”—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. This product contains no artificial or synthetic sweeteners or flavors of any kind.
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Thanks to their connections, credentials, and academic experience, this team of MDs, PhDs, and other professionals has access to a wealth of research published in the largest and most prestigious journals in the world.
This allows them to not only review individual studies but also analyze the overall weight of the evidence on any and all topics related to diet, exercise, supplementation, and more.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, misleading, out-of-date, or anything less than factual, please let us know in the comments section of the article in question.
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If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, misleading, out-of-date, or anything less than factual, please let us know in the comments section of the article in question.
