High Fat Foods - Their Effect On Your Heart

If you eat too many high fat foods you put your heart at risk. You may be able to get away with an occasional meal but not on a regular basis. Triglicerides form in your bloodstream, which affects the blood cells and slows down the metabolism of LDL, the bad cholesterol, and send it up. This clogs up the arteries, making them narrower, restricting the blood flow and sending up your blood pressure.

Not all fats are the same

We have long been warned about eating too many meals that included saturated fats. Animals and animal products contain these fats. As people reduced their intake of food like red meat and dairy products and started eating more chicken and fish, heart disease dropped. Many of us reduced the amount of red meat we were eating and turned to margarine and low fat products. These changes did get good results but, with more people eating fast food and consuming more bad fats. We do get some benefit from saturated fats in the form of essential fatty acids but we get nothing good from trans fats.

The Main Danger

Research has now come to the fore which points to trans fat as the main danger to increased heart disease. These are unsaturated fats and are a by-product of hydrogenation, which is the process used to make products like margarine. They were present in many early margarines and this was promoted as a health benefit, as they were perceived to be healthier than saturated fats. However, there was mounting evidence to the contrary. By 1994 it was estimated 20,000 people a year were dying from heart disease caused by the consumption of trans fats. This led to the FDA putting a virtual ban on them in margarine.

The problem is, these fats are still very much present in many fast food outlets. Most deep fried foods have a high percentage of trans fats, as do foods like shop bought pies, cookies, pastries and cakes. You should only eat these high fats occasionally, as they do affect your heart. Health professionals have told us over many years to avoid eating fast foods on a regular basis. Maybe it is time to heed their warnings and make sure we cut down on these foods, which are such a potential risk to our health.