Quote Originally Posted by Eden View Post
I think one of the things we really have to remember is that it really pretty recent that most people have had access to such large amounts of food, and animal proteins especially. Not too long ago meat, and red meat especially was a treat, to be used sparingly or maybe once each week or two. Not only that - most people's everyday lives are much less physically demanding these days. We have so many convienences that save us physical labor that we and so much food that its no wonder there are now so many obese people at severe risk for a coronary.
We might also consider that life expectancy has increased too. Many illnesses and accidents that were killers not too long ago are now survivable, and people that live longer will die of something eventually. This may be leading to more deaths via heart disease as more people are living long enough to develop it, so it may be difficult to say that people of generations ago may not have had significant amounts of heart disease, but they just did not die of it....
The overeating issue is definitely part of our problem today, combined with the lack of physical activity. As far as the life expectancy increasing, that could certainly be part of the explanation for the heart disease deaths increasing--it does make sense that more people used to die from other things before the clogged arteries had a chance to happen. I'm really getting frustrated at all the "back and forth" stuff that goes on in the world of nutrition as far as what's healthy and what's not. Especially since I'm going into nursing and planning to specialize in cardiology--I feel like I need to get this straight in order to recommend the right things to my patients. So far, the safest advice seems to me to be the following: moderation is a good general rule, you're best off sticking to natural, minimally processed foods, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, avoid trans fats like the plague, and stay away from crappy carbs like white flour and large amounts of sugar. Not to mention physical activity is important.