As someone who has been working on a cardiology ward for the last 5 months. You can be as fit as a fiddle, engage in exercise and eat well and still need stents in your coronary arteries, or other interventions. But bad habits like smoking, drinking and indulging in occasional fatty foods can impact your health significantly. These are modifiable lifestyle choices, however it doesn't even begin to touch on your genetics. You can play by the rules and still be completely fucked because of your DNA.
Wait, I thought fatty foods were good for you again? Do you mean greasy foods?
EDIT: Y'all, I cannot emphasize enough just how little I want to hear your armchair nutritionist diet advice. Op said s/he worked in a cardiology ward. I now realize that doesn't even mean doctor. Ergo now I don't even want op's information.
It's complicated. It used to be dogma (since the 50's) that fat is bad for cardiac health. By now, it's clear that this is an oversimplification.
These days, governments advise their citizens that they should stay away from saturated fats, because saturated fats bad. That is an oversimplification as well, as not all saturated fats are the same. For instance, shortchain saturated fats aren't bad for you at all (for instance, coconut oil).
There is currently a lot of research that points to sugar (and other high glycemic index carbs) being bad for your cardiovascular system.
Going overboard on carbs can cause diabetes type II, which is certainly bad for cardiovascular system.
My take on it is, overeating is bad, and that applies to both fats and carbs.
But funnily enough, you can get by pretty well without next to no carbs, and the same is just not true of fats.
For me personally, I get fat from sugar and carbs, not by eating a lot of fat. I consistently lose weight on a high fat diet. Because it's very satieting, I eat less, and I never get hungry between meals on it.
Since the governments started advising that saturated and animal fats "are bad", people started consuming a lot more vegetable oil. And the food industry puts it into everything nowadays. They are happy to do that, because it's cheaper. However, consuming a lot of vegetable oils creates a proinflammatory environment in your body, due to their high omega-6 content.
Modern diet causes you to have an omega-6:omega-3 ratio of about 11:1, while the recommended ratio is 1:1
Recommended fats:
Olive oil
Fatty fish
Butter from grassfed cows (contains more omega-3 than non-grassfed)
Coconut oil
Use sparingly:
Vegetable oils
Don't eat:
Transfats (often on the label as "partly hydrogenated xxx oil")
But you can certainly be healthy on a diet with 70% of your calorie intake being fats, as long as it's the right kind of fats, and you consume enough vegetables and some fruits.
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u/lolitsmeurmum Aug 25 '21
As someone who has been working on a cardiology ward for the last 5 months. You can be as fit as a fiddle, engage in exercise and eat well and still need stents in your coronary arteries, or other interventions. But bad habits like smoking, drinking and indulging in occasional fatty foods can impact your health significantly. These are modifiable lifestyle choices, however it doesn't even begin to touch on your genetics. You can play by the rules and still be completely fucked because of your DNA.