CHD and a high fat diet

CHD and a high fat diet

           Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is a disease in which a waxy substance called plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries, which are important as they supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle. Therefore there is a high risk of death if the arteries are blocked and are prevented from getting sufficient amount of oxygen.

            Plaque is formed when cholesterol combine with fat, calcium and other substances in the blood. Thus, there is a strong correlation between the level cholesterol and risk of CHD, and the former can be the cause of the latter.

            There are many factors that increase the risk of CHD, but diet is the most crucial part that people should be concerned with. A person with high fat diet will get much higher chance of having CHD than a person with low fat diet. Among the types of fats (lipids), two types are most likely to lead to high levels of cholesterol: Saturated fats and Trans fats

            Saturated fats are found in animal products such as cheese, meat or butter. To define what saturated fat is, it is a fat, whose fatty acids all have single bonds. Because they don’t contain any double bonds, they are saturated with hydrogen molecules. These fats are normally called as ‘bad fats’, as they are the main source of cholesterol. On the other hand, trans fats are the artificial fats that are created in an industrial process, whereby hydrogen is added to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid. These fats are found in most processed food like cakes or biscuits. Like saturated fats, trans fats also increases the level of cholesterol.

            In particular, processed meat can be one of the foods that contain high quantities of saturated fats. Moreover, the process of manufacturing this meat contains smoking, curing or salting for preservation. This adding of chemical preservatives can promote atherosclerosis, which can in turn lead to CHD.

            However, there is a type of fats that are healthful to the heart. Unsaturated fats – polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats – are beneficial for heart health, because they contain the essential fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6. The listed fatty acids can improve the level of cholesterol in arteries. Unsaturated fats are found in fish, nuts, seeds and some vegetables.

            We cannot stop eating fats, because they are very important source of energy and formation of hormones. In order to reduce the risk of CHD, it is recommended to have unsaturated fats instead of saturated fats. Nevertheless, this does not mean that exceeding amount of unsaturated fats in diet is healthful. Even if a person eats only unsaturated fats, when the amount of fats he takes gets over 37% more than his recommended total daily calories, this will increase his risk of CHD, and other disease such as diabetes.