Dietary taboos for arteriosclerosis

Long-term and high-frequency intake of processed foods containing excess saturated fat/trans fat, sweet drinks with excessive added sugar, and high-salt foods with excessive sodium content. Most of the other so-called "no eggs/no fatty meats" are one-sided conclusions that do not take into account individual metabolic differences.

I have had clinical contact with no fewer than 30 patients with carotid artery plaques, and more than half of them have fallen into the trap of "completely abstaining from egg yolks." What impressed me the most was a 62-year-old man who was diagnosed with plaque last year. He did not dare to touch whole eggs for three years after he was diagnosed with plaque. He only ate egg whites every day. As a result, during the reexamination, his albumin was low and his blood vessel elasticity was even worse than before, which hindered the stability of the plaque. Later, based on his blood lipid report, we told him that as long as he does not have familial hypercholesterolemia, it is absolutely fine to eat one whole egg a day. This is also the current consensus in the nutrition community: the dietary cholesterol intake of ordinary people only affects blood cholesterol by 10% to 20%. Only people with cholesterol metabolism disorders need to strictly limit the intake of egg yolks and animal offal. Neither of the two views is right or wrong, they just suit different groups of people.

Rather than worrying about whether you can eat eggs, you should be more wary of the trans fats and excess saturated fats hidden in daily snacks. The crispy bread you grab in a hurry in the morning, the non-dairy milk tea you drink in the afternoon, the fried dough sticks and twists fried at home during the holidays, as well as the margarine cakes and cocoa butter substitute chocolates sold in supermarkets. The trans fat in these foods is a "blood vessel killer" recognized by the medical community. It will directly increase low-density lipoprotein (also known as "bad cholesterol") and accelerate the formation of plaques. Of course, there are different research conclusions on saturated fat: some scholars believe that natural sources of saturated fat, such as fat and butter, are far less damaging to blood vessels than synthetic trans fat, so it is perfectly fine to eat braised pork to satisfy your cravings once in a while. You don’t need to feel guilty, as long as you don’t eat it every day and eat it every day.

What many people don’t know is that sweet food can sometimes cause more subtle damage to blood vessels than salty food. A 40-year-old programmer came for a review before. His taste was very bland, he added very little salt in cooking, and he never ate fatty meat. However, he loved to drink iced black tea, at least two bottles a day. The result was that the coronary artery was stenotic by 30%. He was stunned when he took the report. In fact, the problem lies in the added sugar: excessive free sugar will increase triglycerides in the blood, and will also make the originally smooth blood vessel endothelium become as bumpy as the inner wall of a corroded water pipe. Blood lipids are particularly easy to deposit on it to form plaques. Of course, some nutritionists specifically emphasize that the natural fructose in fruits does not need to be strictly restricted. As long as you do not squeeze the fruits into juice (which will remove dietary fiber and increase the absorption rate of sugar several times), eating 200 to 350 grams of fresh fruits every day is good for blood vessels.

Let’s talk about the high-salt problem that everyone is most familiar with. Unfortunately, many people limit it to the wrong place. Many people do consciously add less salt when cooking, but the salted duck eggs for breakfast, the pickles for porridge, the ham sausages and potato chips that are eaten casually, and the invisible salt in takeaways are not taken into account at all. Let’s take the simplest example: a 100-gram pack of ordinary potato chips has about 600 milligrams of sodium, which is almost equal to 3 grams of salt. If you eat two packs a day, even if you cook at home without adding any salt, your sodium intake for the whole day will exceed the standard. A different point of view should be mentioned here: some cardiovascular doctors believe that less sodium is not better. For people with arteriosclerosis, it is enough to control the daily sodium intake to 2000 mg (that is, about 5 grams of salt). If it is less than 1000 mg, it may cause fatigue and hypotension. There is no need to go to the other extreme.

When I usually communicate with patients, I never give them a dense list of fastings. Instead, I teach them a very simple "frequency control method": for example, braised pork, sweet and sour pork ribs and other high-fat and high-sugar dishes, it is perfectly fine to eat them two or three times a month, not three or four times a week.； Processed desserts such as milk tea and cakes are okay to have once in a while when friends get together, but don’t make them a standard part of afternoon tea every day. What you really need to be wary of is never "an occasional bite", but those bad habits that you are accustomed to and stick with every day.

In the final analysis, dietary management of arteriosclerosis is never about making you an ascetic. After all, if you can’t eat this or touch that every day, emotional anxiety will not be good for vascular health. Don’t believe those alarmists on the Internet who say “one bite will clog your blood vessels.” Correcting your long-term diet is much more effective than worrying about whether you can eat a certain bite. Oh, by the way, if you are really not sure whether you can eat something, it is much more reliable to ask the doctor directly with your blood lipids and carotid artery ultrasound report than to read the same generic list on the Internet ~