Daily Health News Blog

 Which Diet Is Best for Heart Health? It seems the controversy continues. Those who advocate for low-fat diets for heart health tell us a low-carb, high fat diet is detrimental to heart health. On the surface, it makes sense that this would be true. But is it? A recently published clinical trial conducted by a doctor and researcher well versed in heart and metabolic health came to some extremely interesting and surprising conclusions. The way this trial was conducted was that the participants were split into one of 3 groups. They followed the diets assigned to them for 20 weeks. Each of the 3 diets contained 20% protein but differing amounts of carbs and fat. Study participants received fully prepared, customized meals that they could either eat in the cafeteria or take to go. So there was no guessing as to whether they actually consumed the assigned amounts of macronutrients. Here is how the diets broke down: Low-carb: 20% carbohydrate, 21% fat Moderate-carb: 40% carbohydrate, 14% fat

When it comes to cholesterol, most people think lower is better. But it isn’t so simple. While all the cholesterol you eat is the same, cholesterol in the blood travels in different types of packages. The two basic kinds are LDL (low-density lipoprotein, the "bad" type), which promotes atherosclerosis, and HDL (high-density lipoprotein, the "good" type), which helps protect against this. So while you want to keep your LDL and total cholesterol low, you want to keep your HDL high. HDL is turning out to be even more cardio-protective than previously thought. Not only does it help remove cholesterol from artery walls, but recent research indicates that it also acts as an antioxidant, reduces inflammation and blood clotting, and helps blood vessels to dilate and stay flexible. Low HDL is a part of the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that greatly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes. It’s estimated that for every 1 mg/dl incre