The food and pharmaceutical industries have held the masses captive for years by demonizing saturated fat and cholesterol to push processed foods and statins. Their promise to cure heart disease with a high-carbohydrate diet and the proper medications was a lie that increased cardiovascular-related deaths worldwide.

Now, more people realize that high cholesterol isn’t necessarily a death sentence or an imminent heart attack waiting to happen without a statin.

The fact is, a high cholesterol level isn’t always bad news. But, when your blood test results return with abnormal lipid ratios, and your type-B LDL is high, it’s time to make some changes.

The good news is you can get your lipid levels back on track without a statin. Even if you have an elevated Lp(a), a genetically inherited LDL particle subtype,  it doesn’t mean you’re doomed and need to wait for the impending heart attack you can’t do anything about. Your 100 Year Heart is still attainable, and it all begins with eliminating specific dietary hazards you may not even know about.

Foods to Avoid If You Have High Cholesterol

• Non-organic foods

  Consuming non-organic foods exposes you to harmful pesticides and toxic heavy metals that weaken your immune system, cause inflammation and atherosclerosis, and ultimately lead to heart disease.

  • PesticidesThe Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that nearly 75% of non-organic fresh produce sold in America has harmful pesticide residue. Even worse, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspects less than one percent of pesticides imported into the United States.

    It’s no wonder that conventional crops often contain pesticide residue. Glyphosate, a pesticide used worldwide, is associated with coronary artery disease. Unfortunately, the farming industry uses them regularly without considering their long-lasting health effects.

  • Toxic heavy metalsThe concentrations of heavy metals in the environment have been increasing over the decades, and many sources are responsible for soil contamination, including thermal power plants, vehicular pollution, and sewage. Our food is often grown in this contaminated soil.

    Cadmium, a toxic heavy metal found in food crops, is associated with increased arterial plaque or atherosclerosis. Mercury and lead are other heavy metals contaminating the environment and food crops that harm the heart and overall health.

• Processed foods

  Scientist Ancel Keys published a world-renowned paper,  “The Seven Countries Study,” linking fat intake, high cholesterol, and heart disease. His theory was called the “diet-heart hypothesis.”

  This theory became fact as the American Heart Association, media, medical community, and eventually, the federal government embraced it. Saturated fat and cholesterol are the two main culprits that lead to heart disease. 

  The food industry quickly jumped on board and has since accumulated billions of dollars through manufacturing “low-fat” foods that are supposed to be “heart healthy.” Unfortunately, low-fat led to foods high in carbohydrates. Then, as our world became more fast-paced, convenience became a key selling point. A quick meal on the go was easier than a healthy, homemade meal. 

  Here we are today with fast-food restaurants and grocery shelves lined with ready-to-eat processed foods. 

  Processed foods have numerous additives, including hydrogenated vegetable oils, preservatives, flavor enhancers, and added sweeteners like corn syrup, cane juice, and artificial sweeteners. We now know that processed foods lead to unhealthy lipoprotein levels in the blood, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease.

• Sugar

  Sugar is not only addictive- it’s toxic. Even though many people know sugar is in processed foods, they don’t realize sugar hides in many foods they eat daily, like yogurt, “healthy” cereals, condiments, and peanut butter.

  Sugar’s toxic nature causes inflammation that damages arterial walls. When you have high amounts of small, dense LDL in your blood, it sticks to the damaged areas, eventually leading to plaque build-up inside the arterial walls.

• Gluten

  The FDA defines gluten as the protein that occurs naturally in wheat, barley, or rye. However, it’s a mixture of proteins in ALL grains, and many people have a sensitivity to gluten that can lead to an immune and inflammatory response in the gut and other problems.

  The chronic, low-grade inflammation in the gut can spill mediators into the bloodstream and create the same effect on arterial walls as sugar, resulting in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.

• Meat that is not grass-fed

  Cows that aren’t grass-fed often live under stressed conditions and are hopped up on hormones and antibiotics in crowded pens. Since they aren’t outside in the sunshine grazing on healthy, green grass, farmers feed them soy, wheat, and corn to fatten them up. 

  Grass-fed beef has higher amounts of omega-3 fats, which are essential to heart health. They also have more vitamin D from a healthy life roaming fields under the sun.

  Unfortunately, not everyone has access to high-quality grass-fed meat. That’s why Natural Heart Doctor offers Kickstart My Heart, a daily supplement of heart and liver sourced from free-range bison containing all the nutritional benefits of a freeze-dried food capsule.

• Farmed seafood

  Farm-raised seafood often lives in overcrowded environments infested with sea life or other microbes. Their water also contains industrial chemicals, including terephthalic acid (TPA) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). They’re also fed a poor diet of GMO fish pellets that contain ingredients like wild fish, artificial coloring, and antibiotics.

  Like grass-fed meat, wild-caught seafood is healthier, with higher levels of omega-3s compared to farm-raised seafood. Wild seafood lives within its ecosystem, free from antibiotics, pesticides, and GMO feed.

  Here at the Natural Heart Doctor, we promote sardines because even though they’re tiny, they are packed with so many of the essential nutrients necessary for a healthy heart, including those all-important Omega-3 fatty acids. The problem is, where do you find sardines that aren’t farm-raised? You can find them encapsulated in The Whole Fish supplement made from sardines sourced from the Mediterranean and personally formulated by Dr. Jack Wolfson, a board-certified cardiologist who understands what the human heart needs to thrive.

• Dairy

  Conventional dairy products contain antibiotics, artificial hormones, and damaging digestive enzymes. Even organic milk is pasteurized, meaning that most of the nutrients found in the milk are denatured or dead, making it difficult for humans to digest. Raw milk is better because it comes from healthy, grass-fed cows. It’s free of added toxins such as synthetic nutrients and pesticides, and it contains absorbable minerals, helpful enzymes, and fat-soluble vitamins to support immune function and reduce body fat.

  If you’re going to drink raw milk, you should still drink it in moderation. Support a more diverse gut microbiome by reaching for fermented products like kefir and yogurt to satisfy your dairy cravings.

• Soy products

  You probably started eating soy products because someone said it’s great for your cholesterol. It’s naturally low in fat with no saturated fats! Now you realize that it’s not entirely true. Soy lectins are actually linked to heart disease and contribute to the chronic inflammation responsible for atherosclerosis.

• Alcohol

  You may not need to stop drinking alcohol altogether, but knowing the risks is essential if you have high cholesterol. Drinking too much alcohol can increase triglyceride levels, a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

  If you’re going to drink alcohol, reach for an organic alcoholic beverage, but drink only in moderation. Dry Farm Wines is an excellent choice, free from the many toxic additives typically found in alcohol. Organic alcoholic drinks are free from chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and must adhere to strict government standards to earn the organic certification.

Next Steps

Now that you know what to avoid when you have high cholesterol let NHD guide you through what you should do to get your lipid levels back on track. We’ll start with an Advanced Cardiac Panel to help us understand where you are now with your current lipid levels and where we want you to be sixty or ninety days from now.

We also offer a complimentary 20-minute health consultation with an experienced NHD health coach to assess which one of our cholesterol-lowering supplements may be right for you.

We’ll walk with you on this heart-health journey that will get you back on track to reach your 100 Year Heart in no time!