What causes coronary heart disease or coronary atherosclerotic plaque, this thing that we track with heart scans?
Well, here are a few little-publicized facts about heart disease that you are unlikely to hear from your When's-the-next-stent? cardiologist or the What is there besides statins? primary care doctor.
(Since everybody knows that smoking is a modifiable risk for heart disease that can be readily identified, let's focus on the blood tests that reveal heart disease causes.)
A systematic review of the evidence supporting a causal link between dietary factors and coronary heart disease.
Mente A, de Koning L, Shannon HS, Anand SS.
Arch Intern Med. 2009 Apr 13;169(7):659-69.
PMID: 19364995
The No-Grain diet is based on the idea that grains and sugars are "enemy number one to losing weight and living longer."
Instead, The No-Grain diet emphasizes organic vegetables and quality protein.
It's true that refined grains - such as white bread, white rice and many breakfast cereals - contain many calories, but without the fiber, vitamins, and minerals found in whole-grains.
In other words, they're energy-dense but nutrient-sparse.
But it's worth pointing out that there's a difference between whole grains and refined grains.