Walk 22mins a day & eat fatty food to beat heart disease
THE risk of heart disease can be cut by eating “real” food and taking a brisk 22-minute daily walk, experts say.
And the widely held belief that saturated fats clog the arteries, causing coronary heart disease, is “plain wrong”, they say.
The British Journal of Sports Medicine said Britons should shift to a Mediterraneanstyle diet, take regular moderate exercise and reduce stress levels.
Seven million Brits have heart disease, which kills 435 people here every day.
Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, who co-wrote the journal’s editorial, said: “Decades of emphasis on lowering cholesterol and driving a market of ‘proven to lower cholesterol’ and ‘low fat’ foods and medications, has been misguided.”
Dr Malhotra, of Lister Hospital, Stevenage, Herts, added: “Coronary artery disease can be reduced by walking 22 minutes a day and eating real food.” Our diet should include antiinflammatory compounds found in nuts, olive oil, vegetables and oily fish, the experts added. Dr Mary Hannon-Fletcher, of Ulster University, said it was “the best dietary and exercise advise I have read in recent years”. She added: “The modern idea of a healthy diet where we eat low fat and low calorie foods is not a healthy option. These foods have been so altered they are anything but healthy.” But Dr Mike Knapton, of the British Heart Foundation, said: “The claims about saturated fat are unhelpful and misleading. When it comes to reducing your risk of heart disease, the lower your cholesterol is the better.” Obese children are four times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes by the age of 25, researchers from King’s College, London have found.