this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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Biggest cause of heart disease is a meat based diet
Not to be that guy, but do you have any sources for this? I'm pretty sure alcoholism, sleep deprivation, and family history are also pretty major risk factors.
No worries, here's a few https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25198208/ (study from Dr Esselstyn showing plant based diet can reverse heart disease ) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4315380/#%3A%7E%3Atext=The+Lifestyle+Heart+Trial+found%2CAmerican+Heart+Association+diet%2C+had (The Lifestyle Heart Trial found that 82% of patients diagnosed with heart disease who followed this plant-based diet program had some level of regression of atherosclerosis and 91% had a reduction in the frequency of angina episodes, whereas 53% of the control group, fed the American Heart Association diet, had progression of atherosclerosis) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10424050/ (higher consumption of plant foods and lower intake of animal-based foods, have been shown to reduce the risk of CAD by up to 29%) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17364116/ (vegetarian diet leads to much lower cholesterol levels than a meat diet) https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/eating-red-meat-daily-triples-heart-disease-related-chemical (Eating red meat daily triples heart disease-related chemical) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507799/ (Atherosclerosis is underlying cause 50% of all deaths in westernized society.)
That's very interesting! (Although I would still argue that this only shows plant-based diets can result in improved outcomes for people who already have significant progression and does not necessarily imply not adhering to a plant-based diet is the leading cause of atherosclerosis per se, but I am a huge biology nerd so it doesn't really matter)
but it's pretty well known atherosclerosis is caused by an over consumption of cholesterol, which is only found in meat https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5728368/#%3A%7E%3Atext=Processed+and+unprocessed+red+meat+consumption+was+related+to+an%2Cmale+and+female+hypertensive+individuals.
Actually you're right that meats (fatty acids) are a large cause of AS, there are a few clarifications I'd like to make. Apparently plants contain their own sterols which compete with cholesterol for sites on lipoproteins, which means that while plant-based diets could be useful in treating AS. However causing heightened atherosclerosis is only an issue for fatty meats and lean meats such as chicken don't have this much of an impact on cholesterol, and even then it's not because they contain more cholesterol per se[https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6024674/ ctrl+f "The importance of dietary cholesterol in CVD continues to be discussed as shown in a recent review in which the authors concluded that although eggs constitute a main source of cholesterol, their role in CVD is tenuous" this is about eggs but extends to anything with high cholesterol] but rather precursors to it. Essentially cholesterol is synthesized from fats and you shouldn't eat fats a lot.[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15927927/ ctrl+f "lean red meat is low in saturated fat, and if consumed in a diet low in SFA is associated with reductions in LDL-cholesterol in both healthy and hypercholesterolemia subjects."]
Comrade